Wired for War 3-4-10
One thing President Obama has done that I approve of is increase the use of unmanned drones to kill Al-Qaeda operatives in Pakistan and other places in the world. Its obviously a touchy subject in Pakistan with the government having to give its “unofficial” approval and with the Pakistan population having to give its “official” disapproval in polls. For some reason, the Muslim world feels a political (or more importantly cultural) obligation to appear defensive of those killed in the raids. Its kind of like the Arab governments looking the other way while silently approving the U.S. takedown of Saddam. The drones are just one of the important military tools available to our government to fight the next war.
Although its been written about in many places, few Americans realize that the unmanned Predator drones that cover the skies over Iraq, Afghanistan and other world hot-spots are operated by pilots based just down I-15 in Las Vegas. Nellis Air Force Base has a trailer for Iraq and another for Afghanistan. The drone technology has been around for years. Tom Clancy wrote about it in his last (long ago) novel, The Bear and the Dragon and the weapons have become far more advanced since.
This kind of unmanned weaponry is clearly the wave of the future. Sure, we see the Star Wars movies and laugh as the robot soldiers go to fight. P.W. Singer, in his latest book, Wired For War, shows us that George Lucas wasn’t so far-fetched after all. Wired For War is now available in paperback and its sub-title is The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century. That’s a bit of a mouthful, but Singer is one of the most brilliant writers we have on predicting the direction of arms. His previous books have been on the rise of private military firms (like Blackwater in Iraq) and also the use of child soldiers (like they do in Africa).
Singer has now turned his attention to what he calls “robotic warfare”. There are currently over 12,000 robotic systems in place in the Middle East. That is the tip of the iceberg. Singer shows what the next generation of weapons will look like and then he explores what that means to live soldiers now, as well as those of us at home. Wars will be less costly in terms of lives on the battlefield, but will be harder to control and will make it almost impossible to defend the civilian populace. The pictures alone are worth the price of the book. I’ll put more out about this book later. Although it covers a scientific subject, its very interesting.