Technology Spectacles Mask Weaknesses

Abstract

Future U.S. wars in the Third World will involve massive use of drones to police the territory, employment of local satrap1 forces (such as those of Hamid Karzai’s Afghan Army) and, once the territory has been pacified sufficiently, the deployment of “Government Ready-to-Rule (GRR)” kits. The drones provide the critical and the weak link: critical insofar as they represent the ultimate American-style war where only the “Others” (opponents and civilians) die but weak insofar as this type of warfare works only against an opponent without any anti-drone/aircraft capability. In other words, this type of technological warfare can only be carried out upon weak opponents lacking independent industrial capacities (not against China, Russia, and India). This approach represents the culmination of disconnecting the delivery of deadly force – the rain of Hellfire missiles – upon the “Others” and incurring no human (physical or psychological – PTSD) costs. Or, put in other terms, it represents the quintessential American way of “solving” problems with technological shortcuts, a military effort begun in 1942 with the Allied fire-bombing of German cities.2 The current American war in Afghanistan is a harbinger of what is to come, America’s electronic, troop-less war.

Department

Economics

Publication Date

3-13-2010

Journal Title

Frontline: India’s National Magazine

Document Type

Article

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