Date: Thu, 27 Feb 2003 09:47:40 -0500 From: Nicholas De Genova <npd18-AT-columbia.edu> Subject: Mike Davis on the "revolution in military affairs" To: undisclosed-recipients:; SLOUCHING TOWARD BAGHDAD.... >By Mike Davis > >Imperial Washington, like Berlin in the late 1930s, has become a >psychedelic capital where one megalomaniacal hallucination >succeeds another. Thus, in addition to creating a new >geopolitical order in the Middle East, we are now told by the >Pentagon's deepest thinkers that the invasion of Iraq will also >inaugurate "the most important 'revolution in military affairs' (or >RMA) in two hundred years." > >According to Admiral William Owen, a chief theorist of the >revolution, the first Gulf War was "not a new kind of war, but the >last of the old ones." Likewise, the air wars in Kosovo and >Afghanistan were only pale previews of the postmodern blitzkrieg >that will be unleashed against the Baathist regime. Instead of old- >fashioned sequential battles, we are promised nonlinear "shock >and awe." > >Although the news media will undoubtedly focus on the sci-fi >gadgetry involved - thermobaric bombs, microwave weapons, >unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), PackBot robots, Stryker fighting >vehicles, and so on - the truly radical innovations (or so the war >wonks claim) will be in the organization and, indeed, the very >concept of the war. > >In the bizarre argot of the Pentagon's Office of Force >Transformation (the nerve center of the revolution), a new kind of >"warfighting ecosystem" known as "network centric warfare" (or >NCW) is slouching toward Baghdad to be born. Promoted by >military futurists as a "minimalist" form of warfare that spares lives >by replacing attrition with precision, NCW may in fact be the >inevitable road to nuclear war. > >FROM DESERT STORM TO WAL-MART > >Military "revolutions" based on new technology, of course, have >come and gone since air-power fanatics like Giulio Douhet, Billy >Mitchell, and Hugh Trenchard first proclaimed the obsolescence >of traditional armies and battleship navies in the early 1920s. This >time, however, the superweapon isn't a long-distance bomber or >nightmare H-bomb but the ordinary PC and its ability, via the >Internet, to generate virtual organization in the "battlespace" as well >as the marketplace. > >Like all good revolutionaries, the Pentagon advocates of RMA/ >NCW are responding to the rot and crisis of an ancien regime. >Although Gulf War I was publicly celebrated as a flawless victory >of technology and alliance politics, the real story was vicious >infighting among American commanders and potentially >disastrous breakdowns in decision-making. Proponents of high- >tech warfare, like the 'smart bomb' attacks on Baghdad's >infrastructure, clashed bitterly with heavy-metal traditionalists, while >frustrated battlefield CEO Norman Schwarzkopf threw stupefying >tantrums. > >The battles continued back in the Pentagon where the >revolutionaries -- mostly geekish colonels bunkered in a series of >black-box think tanks -- found a powerful protector in Andrew >Marshall, the venerable head of research and technology >assessment. In 1993, Marshall - a guru to both Dick Cheney and >leading Democrats - provided the incoming Clinton administration >with a working paper that warned that Cold War weapons >"platforms" like Nimitz-class aircraft carriers and heavy tank battle >groups were becoming obsolete in face of precision weapons and >cruise missiles. > >Marshall instead proselytized for cheaper, quicker, smarter >weapons that took full advantage of American leadership in >information technology. He warned, however, that "by perfecting >these precision weapons, America is forcing its enemies to rely >on terrorist activities that are difficult to target." He cast doubt on >the ability of the Pentagon's fossilized command hierarchies to >adapt to the challenges of so-called "asymmetric warfare." > >The revolutionaries went even further, preaching that the potentials >of 21st century war-making technology were being squandered >within 19th century military bureaucracies. The new military forces >of production were straining to break out of their archaic relations >of production. They viciously compared the Pentagon to one of the >"old economy" corporations -- "hardwired, dumb and top-heavy" -- >that were being driven into extinction in the contemporary "new >economy" marketplace. > >Their alternative? Wal-Mart, the Arkansas-based retail leviathan. It >may seem odd, to say the least, to nominate a chain store that >peddles cornflakes, jeans and motor oil as the model for a leaner, >meaner Pentagon, but Marshall's think-tankers were only following >in the footsteps of management theorists who had already >beatified Wal-Mart as the essence of a "self-synchronized >distributed network with real-time transactional awareness." >Translated, this means that the stores' cash registers >automatically transmit sales data to Wal-Mart's suppliers and that >inventory is managed through 'horizontal' networks rather than >through a traditional head-office hierarchy. > >"We're trying to do the equivalent in the military," wrote the authors >of Network Centric Warfare: developing and leveraging information >superiority, the 1998 manifesto of the RMA/NCW camp that >footnotes Wal-Mart annual reports in its bibliography. In >"battlespace," mobile military actors (ranging from computer >hackers to stealth bomber pilots) would be the counterparts of >Wal-Mart's intelligent salespoints. > >Instead of depending on hardcopy orders and ponderous chains >of commands, they would establish "virtual collaborations" >(regardless of service branch) to concentrate overpowering >violence on precisely delineated targets. Command structures >would be "flattened" to a handful of generals, assisted by >computerized decision-making aides, in egalitarian dialogue with >their "shooters.'" > >The iconic image, of course, is the Special Forces op in Pathan >drag using his laptop to summon air strikes on a Taliban position >that another op is highlighting with his laser designator. To NCW >gurus, however, this is still fairly primitive Gunga Din stuff. They >would prefer to "swarm" the enemy terrain with locust-like myriads >of miniaturized robot sensors and tiny flying video cams whose >information would be fused together in a single panopticon picture >shared by ordinary grunts in their fighting vehicles as well as by >four-star generals in their Qatar or Florida command posts. > >Inversely, as American "battlespace awareness" is exponentially >increased by networked sensors, it becomes ever more important >to blind opponents by precision air strikes on their equivalent (but >outdated) "command and control" infrastructures. This >necessarily means a ruthless takeout of civilian >telecommunications, power grids, and highway nodes: all the >better, in the Pentagon view, to allow American psy-op units to >propagandize, or, if necessary, terrorize the population. > >THE PENTAGON'S WHIRLING DERVISHES > >Critics of RMA/NCW have compared it to a millennial cult, >analogous to bible-thumping fundamentalism or, for that matter, to >Al Queda. Indeed, reading ecstatic descriptions of how "Metcalfe's >Law" guarantees increases of "network power proportional to the >square of the number of nodes,'" one wonders what the wonks are >smoking in their Pentagon basement offices. (Marshall, >incidentally, advocates using behavior-modifying drugs to create >Terminator-like 'bioengineered soldiers.') > >Their most outrageous claim is that Clausewitz's famous "fog of >war" -- the chaos and contingency of the battlefield -- can be >dispelled by enough sensors, networks, and smart weapons. >Thus vice-admiral Arthur Cebrowski, the Pentagon director for >"force transformation," hallucinates that "in only a few years, if the >the technological capabilities of America's enemies remain only >what they are today, the US military could effectively achieve total >"battlespace knowledge." > >Donald Rumsfeld, like Dick Cheney (but unlike Colin Powell), is a >notorious addict of RNA/NCW fantasies (already enshrined as >official doctrine by the Clinton administration in 1998). By opening >the floodgates to a huge military budget (almost equal to the rest >of the world's military spending combined), 9.11 allowed >Rumsfeld to go ahead with the revolution while buying off the >reactionaries with funding for their baroque weapons systems, >including three competing versions of a new tactical fighter. The >cost of the compromise - which most Democrats have also >endorsed - will be paid for by slashing federal spending on >education, healthcare, and local government. > >A second Iraq war, in the eyes of the RNA/NCW zealots, is the >inevitable theater for demonstrating to the rest of the world that >America's military superiority is now unprecedented and >unduplicable. Haunted by the 1993 catastrophe in Mogadishu, >when poorly armed Somali militia defeated the Pentagon's most >elite troops, the war wonks have to show that networked >technology can now prevail in labyrinthine street warfare. >To this end, they are counting on the combination of battlefield >omniscience, smart bombs, and new weapons like microwave >pulses and nausea gases to drive Baghdadis out of their homes >and bunkers. The use of "non-lethal" (sic) weapons against >civilian populations, especially in light of the horror of what >happened during the Moscow hostage crisis last October, is a war >crime waiting to happen. > >But what if the RNA/NCW's Second Coming of Warfare doesn't >arrive as punctually promised? What happens if the Iraqis or >future enemies find ways to foil the swarming sensors, the night- >visioned Special Forces, the little stair-climbing robots, the >missile-armed drones? Indeed, what if some North Korean >cyberwar squad (or, for that matter, a fifteen-year-old hacker in Des >Moines) manages to crash the Pentagon's "system of systems" >behind its battlespace panopticon? > >If the American war-fighting networks begin to unravel (as partially >occurred in February 1991), the new paradigm - with its "just in >time" logistics and its small "battlefield footprint" - leaves little >backup in terms of traditional military reserves. This is one >reason why the Rumsfeld Pentagon takes every opportunity to >rattle its nuclear saber. > >Just as precision munitions have resurrected all the mad >omnipotent visions of yesterday's strategic bombers, RNA/NCW is >giving new life to monstrous fantasies of functionally integrating >tactical nukes into the electronic battlespace. The United States, it >should never be forgotten, fought the Cold War with the permanent >threat of "first use" of nuclear weapons against a Soviet >conventional attack. Now the threshold has been lowered to Iraqi >gas attacks, North Korean missile launches, or, even, retaliation >for future terrorist attacks on American city. > >For all the geekspeak about networks and ecosystems, and >millenarian boasting about minimal, robotic warfare, the United >States is becoming a terror state pure and simple: a 21st century >Assyria with laptops and modems. > >Mike Davis is the author of City of Quartz, Ecology of Fear, and most >recently, Dead Cities, among other works. He now lives in San Diego. --- from list aut-op-sy-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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