November 2004
[a href="http://www.technologyreview.com/read_article.aspx?id=13893&ch=infotech"][font style="font-weight: bold;" size="4"]How Technology Failed in Iraq[/font][/a]
The Iraq War was supposed to be a preview of the new U.S. military: a light, swift force that relies as much on sensors and communications networks as on heavy armor and huge numbers. But once the shooting started, technology fell far short of expectations.
By David Talbot
The largest counterattack of the Iraq War unfolded in the early-morning hours of April 3, 2003, near a key Euphrates River bridge about 30 kilometers southwest of Baghdad, code-named Objective Peach. The battle was a fairly conventional fight between tanks and other armored vehicles -- almost a throwback to an earlier era of war fighting, especially when viewed against the bloody chaos of the subsequent insurgency. Its scale made it the single biggest test to date of the Pentagon's initial attempts to transform the military into a smaller, smarter, sensor-dependent, networked force.
[a href="http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/06/04/con06147.html"]Rummy's Big Transformation Goes Bust[/a]
Excerpts from
A BUZZFLASH GUEST CONTRIBUTION
by Michael Winship
"What was tripping up Rummy was his devotion to the doctrine of military reform called transformation, the belief that technology can reduce the need for overwhelming force to successfully wage war."
