iPods at War 364
phaedo00 writes "Ars Technica has put together an outstanding piece of journalism about the use of personal technology in America's military and how these devices along with blatant piracy is causing new problems in the face of war: "While soldiers once deployed with little more than a backpack and a rifle, today's crop of infantry troops pack along MP3 players, digital cameras, DVD players, video games, movie collections, and computers of their own. The personal electronics have made modern American warfare the most comfortable it has ever been, but they've also brought a new set of problems onto the battlefield.""
an interesting tidbit: (Score:5, Interesting)
From the fine article, first page, a paragraph:
First, please let this be tongue in cheek on the author's part (I'm assuming it is).
That aside, it's an interesting notion. Yeah, let the MPAA and RIAA go after the piracy of media by soldiers afield. The stipulation would be that the RIAA and MPAA must confront the accused personally, i.e., make them go the active front... after all, they've claimed they themselves are engaged in a war. What better way to experience that reality?
Anyway, if you've read Joseph Heller's Catch 22, soldiers' ingenuity to make their insane world a little more liveable is Milo Minderbinder redux. More power to them for making it through.
It's still war. (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm reminded of what Colnel Kurtz said (Score:5, Interesting)
While I have been against the Iraq war from the begining, I wonder how much truth there is to this. Are short stints and relatively comfortable surroundings really not motivating the troops to do their job? A quote from Captain Willard: "Charlie didn't get much USO. He was dug in too deep or moving too fast. His idea of great R and R was cold rice and a little rat meat. He had only two ways home: death or victory."
Just take the above quotes and replace "Vietnam" with "Iraq" and "Charlie" with the insurgency and you have quotes that apply as much to this war as it did 'Nam....
Re:Off on a tangent (Score:2, Interesting)
I liked this little bit... (Score:2, Interesting)
God Bless America
$5 is all you need - RIAA stops at the border (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:bzzt (Score:2, Interesting)
Also, your claim of "it works" is completely invalidated by the number of drunk high school kids out there.
Don't forget, (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:"fighting for democracy"? Are you joking? (Score:1, Interesting)
Please provide some statistics to backup your claim. In looking at this site [iraqbodycount.org], the total is nowhere near what you claim. IraqBodyCount.org [iraqbodycount.org] has the civilian totals for civilian casualties between 40,000 to 45,000. Not a small number by any means but nowhere near the amount you claim.
The country is in complete, total, utter chaos.
Been subscribing to one of the far left theories I see. Sure, parts of the country have problems but if you look a bit, you can find other references to success in Iraq. I'm sure I could present a pretty picture of Iraq without any facts, very much like what you did, but then I'd be labeled on the far right. I'll stick to my "center of the road" ways.
Jim
Hi, you're wrong (Score:3, Interesting)
Not the only source, but a half-assed google search found the AMA with an article on page 1. Lots of goodies there, here's one:
"A higher MLDA results in fewer alcohol-related problems among youth, and the 21-year-old MLDA saves the lives of well over 1,000 youth each year (Jones et al, 1992; NHTSA, 1989). Conversely, when the MLDA is lowered, motor vehicle crashes and deaths among youth increase. At least 50 studies have evaluated this correlation (Wagenaar, 1993)."
Thanks for playing.
Re:Unfounded Criticism (Score:3, Interesting)
That's absolute crap. Intelligent humans have this ability called "conjecture", that allows them to make informed judgements about things based on their own, different experiences. Now, maybe your experiences will be different enough to mean that judgements can be made poorly, but that's not always the case, there are 'universals' that people can discover by themselves without having to experience the thing ("I'm not gonna jump in that fire, because it will burn. I know this, even though I've never jumped in a fire before"). The same goes for certain morals; a soldier killing someone is *just as* wrong as anybody else killing somebody. What changes is the necessity: is that person about to blow you up? Then necessity outweights.
At the end of the day, people don't want soldiers to be "too comfortable" because going out and killing people shouldn't be nice, you should never be comfortable doing it, so you only do it when it's really necessary to. The thought of it being comfortable, rightly or wrongly, makes other people (aka "society") uncomfortable. Not sure whether I agree, but it's certainly understandable.
Nothing new.... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Unfounded Criticism (Score:5, Interesting)
It's nice to be able to listen to some tunes or play some NCAA with the AC going full blast when it's 130F outside. You do it to try to bring back a feeling of normality. You know that in two hours you're going out for a patrol and you know that your sector is averaging an IED every other day but for that short time beforehand you can almost imagine that you're back home.
Is a $3000 plasma screen excessive? An entire DJ booth over the top? In my opinion yes, but to that soldier it's probably still not enough to make them feel like they were home.
One thing of note.... the PX who supplies most of the crap that soldiers buy is a monopoly. They stock that $3000 plasma that a buck private probably can't afford knowing that they'll take the money and run. In my opinion they were bigger cheats than the Haji shop on base that tried to sell you Rodex watches.
Re:Iraq (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:Chuck E Cheez - our robot elvis man-dog overlor (Score:3, Interesting)
On specific instructions from the Chuck E. Cheez top management, a large number of these had their fur disposed of and their endoskeletons/mechanics cut up with blowtorches. A friend of mine used to work at one of these places when the order came down. He managed to rescue one of them (sans fur) from the cutter and I wound up with it when he no longer had space for it. It's a very interesting device, all pneumatically actuated using a low pressure air line. He also managed to grab a programming console for it, which you can use to drive it manually. All you need is an air source (a truck inner tube will do) and you can drive it around. Since this one was the lead guitar player (I think), it has a reasonable number of degrees of freedom.
The most striking thing about it is the beautiful blue eyes. Seeing it for the first time is quite a shock since the rest of it is quite Terminator-esque.
It's currently standing guard in my basement, waiting for the rise of Goog... I mean SkyNet...
As seen in 2000 (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:That's a Little Extreme (Score:2, Interesting)
And more to the point, NO I don't believe they should get any special treatment, however that includes BOTH POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE treatment.
Also please, if your going to post a rant of your personal belief's, do it as your self instead of being scared of what others would think and posting anonymously
*Yes I have incorrect spelling and bad grammer.
Re:That's a Little Extreme (Score:1, Interesting)
Some people chose differently. That's their choice, I don't see why they should be congratulated on such a foolish decision.
Gotta speak my mind... (Score:3, Interesting)
Regardless of what side of the coin you follow (democrat or republican, liberal or conservative), if you are not putting your
life on the line don't criticize others that do. In addition, as to servicemembers allegedly listening to music or watching videos
illegally, I would ask you to consider the morale factor. If you know you can possibly die at anytime, do you really think that we care
(during our deployment in a hostile country) that the RIAA is going to come after us? Whatever my fellow servicemembers and I need to
maintain our calm in a chaotic situation is what matters plain and simple. Because the simple matter is lives are at stake, namely ours.
Irregardless of whether this war is a good or bad action to undertake.
Another way I'll put is like this: If the RIAA wants to fight terrorism in Iraq before it comes to our shores, I'll gladly hand my M16A4
over to one of the cushy (or pudgy in somecases) lawyers and they can stand post. I don't mind sitting on my ass collecting big checks from
overpaid, overhyped artists (whom the majority can't sing or act anyway). At least I won't harrass dead people's families, college students,
and children. (Not to mention, all that gear hurts my back any damm way).
Regards,
MBC1977
(US Marine, College Student, and Good Guy)
Please note: The following comment is personal and not an official US Marine statement
Re:Problem? (Score:2, Interesting)
Short answer: they don't. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that most recruit-age Americans who understand the consequences of our foreign policies are generally not the ones heading off to Basic. In the interest of disclosure, I consider myself part of this group.
Now we get to the fun (read: scary) part. The US nowadays claims to have a "volunteer" military. This is technically true. However, the reality is very different.
Over the past 30 years, wealth in this country has become extremely concentrated. The obvious effect here is that fewer people own things (home, business, stock, etc), and as a result fewer have financial freedom. Another important effect here is the one of education. Local taxes are used to fund public (state-run) schools, so poor communities often have low-quality schools. This end result is a bunch of people who have no financial freedom and are not very educated (no marketable skills, etc). Those who are smart enough to overcome poor schooling don't have a good chance of making it into and through college.
The military is a pretty attractive option at this point. It's a steady job, provides training (and money for school), and has the bonuses of seeing far-off lands and playing with fun toys (tanks, planes, etc).
The really scary part is the little conspiracy theorist voice in my head is telling me this was the plan all along. The kings and nobles who have all the wealth need people to grow their empire. Vietnam was a PR disaster, which means the draft is going away. Instead, let's squeeze the working classes so many of their sons and daughters are enlisted. Next comes Support The Troops. If you don't Support The Troops, you're a terrorist.
I realize that last paragraph may be seen as inflammatory, but really it's not. This has nothing to do with any political ideology. What it has to do with is the balance of power in this country, and why our current situation is very scary.
Re:Honor our soldiers in battle (Score:2, Interesting)
Actually your soliders are increasing the risks to my life. If every American soldier fell over dead tomorrow I would be personally delighted.
If there was a big button to press to make it happen, I'd be joining the queue.
Support your troops? No.
Piracy is the least of my concern (Score:5, Interesting)
Piracy is the least of our concerns here. In fact, piracy is mostly the ONLY way we are able to get music and movies to bring a little comfort into our lives. I'm stationed in Iraq now, and have been so for the past 10 months. Let me tell you - we soldiers swap movies and music amongst ourselves all the time. The PX'es have a small selection of music and movies, and so we turn to other avenues (like swapping music and movies) or buying pirated CD's and DVD's from Iraqis. We can get whole TV series (Babylon 5, Sopranos, Simpsons) and if they are DVD rips, the quality is pretty good. We can even get movies when they're still in theater - of course, the copy is pretty crappy, but sometimes it'll do. Piracy is rampant here and I wonder if the RIAA knows about it. To put it quite simply, none of us are really bothered - we're mostly trying to make sure we stay alert and alive. To be honest, I find that if I hear some music from a band/artist I like, I buy their CD's. For example, I recently got a song or two by Death Cab For Cutie from my friend. I liked their music, so I bought their CD.
I'm waiting for the day when the *AA sends their representatives into the battlefield to make sure piracy isn't running wild amongst the troops - I'd laugh. I wonder if they'd have the balls to do that or to prosecute soldiers/marines/seamen/airmen who are simply trying to make their lives a little more comfortable.
Re:I'm reminded of what Colnel Kurtz said (Score:3, Interesting)
Let me state for the record that I think the war in Iraq should have been fought, but we fought it for all the wrong reasons. Saddam needed to be booted out, and should have been in '91 when we had a better force for the purpose on the ground. Failing that, Saddam's wilful flaunting of all of the UN sanctions combined with the wholesale slaughter of his own people demanded that he be removed. By force if necessary. Realistically, that was the only way he was leaving office.
In any case, a better model for Iraq post 2003 should have been Germany at the end of WWII. Our senior leadership should have recognized that we were going to be seen as an occupying force,
Why did we eventually win the peace? Because we had enough boots on the ground from the beginning to provide true security throughout the country (and to act as unofficial US ambassadors with the locals), we were in place for at least a decade to make sure that the last of the Hitler's fanatical supporters had been run to ground, and we had the Marshall Plan in place from the beginning to begin rebuilding the infrastructure of Europe.
Contrast that with Iraq and our current leadership. Before the war started, Rumsfeld fired the generals who told him the real scale of what he really needed on the ground, Bush&Co. were clearly surprised that we weren't welcomed with open arms by the locals, Rumsfeld had no plan to deal with the inevitable insurgency, Rumsfeld
So what has 3+ years in Iraq gotten us? Bogged down, spending money and lives like a drunken sailor, and we can't even keep the capitol secure for people to buy groceries. The relatively few Iraqis who do come in contact with US forces frequently end up with a negative impression of us because the only time they see us face to face is when they're at the wrong end of an M16. And I haven't even mentioned this administration's apparent complete disregard for anything remotely resembling moral, ethical, or legal treatment of prisoners.
I could see much of this coming in 2002. Although I never would have predicted Abu Ghraib or transferring prisoners to Egypt for torture! I thought Bush understood what country he represented.
I consider myself to be a small 'c' conservative and generally vote an independent or split ticket. I tried to warn my friends who consider themselves to be Republicans that they were being sold a bill of goods by their party's leadership. I warned them then that we were in Iraq for at least 8 years if we were going to really win. Most scoffed. A couple of them believed me. Even the believers felt that what I thought was necessary to win wasn't going to be politically possible. My response then was that we'd end up looking at another Vietnam if we didn't.