Doomed to fail: America's blind faith in military technology

Parameters, Winter, 2002 by John A. Gentry

* "Secure" networks are vulnerable. NSA personnel have identified theoretical vulnerabilities of the Secret Internet Protocol Router Network (SIPRNet) that carries much of the military's command and control communications via the Global Command and Control System, as well as other sensitive information. (23) The creation of large networks increases both vulnerability and the potential damage an incompetent soldier, malcontent, or enemy agent can cause. In August 2001, a retired US Air Force sergeant was arrested for allegedly selling to Libya documents he obtained from the top-secret Intelink website. In the world of network-centric operations, there is no better espionage or sabotage recruit than a system administrator for a key command and control or intelligence system. Recruitment of an employee is not necessary, however. The chronic lack of computer discipline that leads to periodic introduction of computer viruses into secure networks also gives enemies opportunities to use unwitting but careless Americ ans to place malicious software in key places. (24)

Easy and Effective Countermeasures

Potential US Military opponents have doubtless noted the limitations of US capabilities, have countermeasures, and are planning other ways to overcome US strengths. Among the public comments and actions of potential adversaries:

* Chinese military strategists have written that attacks on space communications and computer networks, including civilian infrastructure, could be part of a successful attack strategy. (25)

* Information operations aimed at civilian decisionmakers--not their computers--can alter us military rules of engagement (ROE) and decisions to use force. Effective information operations against nonmilitary targets can render US military capabilities irrelevant--by preventing their deployment--or change US operational objectives or ROE to the advantage of those manipulating US perceptions. these include putative friends; Bosnian Muslims waged a sophisticated propaganda campaign that portrayed themselves as innocent victims of serb aggression during the Bosnian civil war of 1992-95, gaining strategically important US support that continues. Israel has mastered this technique at substantial financial, political, and, since 11 September 2001, human cost to the United States. (26) the Yugoslav government targeted Western political decisionmaking during NATO's war against Yugoslavia--and came close to winning the war by convincing Western societies to stop an allegedly illegal and ill-advised war. US Air Force Lieutenant General Michael Short, chief of NATO's air campaign, complained publicly about the political directives that formed his ROE, suggesting that he did not understand the impact of information operations on his force. (27) NATO Commander General Wesley Clark, by contrast, understood these ramifications but could not do much about either nato political guidance or the nations' military responses to the guidance--including US responses. (28) Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) used the internet to orchestrate the 1997 land mine treaty over US objections. Osama Bin Laden and his allies have extensively used information operations, aided by errant US air strikes, to portray the US war against the Taliban as a crusade against Islam. Meanwhile, DOD is fixated on a definition of information operations that focuses on computer network attacks.