WRITER's NOTE:
Since I originally wrote this piece, in a state of righteous indignation, I became aware of numerous inaccuracies in the narrative:
The F-18 program is highly successful
The Flak vest comment is inaccurate
I recanted this article here.
It has been unfashionable, for many years now, to criticize our military. Criticize our political arm for sending our young heroes in harms way? Absolutely . But, if anyone questions our military leaders or suggests that our military budget be cut, such a suggestion is akin to shooting our soldiers.
Since I originally wrote this piece, in a state of righteous indignation, I became aware of numerous inaccuracies in the narrative:
The F-18 program is highly successful
The Flak vest comment is inaccurate
I recanted this article here.
It has been unfashionable, for many years now, to criticize our military. Criticize our political arm for sending our young heroes in harms way? Absolutely . But, if anyone questions our military leaders or suggests that our military budget be cut, such a suggestion is akin to shooting our soldiers.
It's time to re-examine that attitude. Our military expenditures are rife with waste, fraud, and worse, incompetence. Take for example the F/18 program...a remarkable weapons system with no adversary. Or airplanes that are so expensive that we are reticent to put them into situations where they might be destroyed (does the phrase "too big to fail" ring a bell?). Or flack vests that sink, drowning our soldiers who fall into water (ask the parents of a soldier in the middle east how much they had to spend on a vest that stopped both bullets and drowning).
But, these misguided efforts pale in comparison to a recent news item. With $26, a satellite dish, a personal computer, some cables and a few other bits, you, just like our military leaders in the White House situation room, can receive and display any feed from any US drone flying around anywhere in the world. You don't need military clearance nor one of those DirecTV magic decoder boxes to un jam the signal. You see, our military is broadcasting this fascinating video up to a satellite and down to the earth without any encryption.
How do you make this work? Skygrabber.com
Think I'm kidding?
The Christian Science Monitor:
SkyGrabber: hack of US drones shows how quickly insurgents adapt
The Guardian:
SkyGrabber: the $26 software used by insurgents to hack into US drones
Discovery News:
PREDATOR DRONES TRACKED BY INSURGENTS
NY Times:
Officials Say Iraq Fighters Intercepted Drone Video
Washington Post:
Pentagon: Insurgents intercepted drone spy videos
Now, I don't know about you, but this seems to be pretty stupid...a classic example of the oxymoron "Military Intelligence". In the vast orgy of spending by the US military, where any resistance is heretical, we have enabled this level of incompetence, a level of incompetence that is killing our children.
There are times when I am confronted with something so preposterous that I am dumbfounded, having no idea what to do. So, all I can offer is this registration of my personal outrage. Perhaps someone can figure out how to fix this....
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