Col. Kenneth Allard on Technology's Impact on the War in Iraq
There are of course the usual caveats. The Iraqi opposition proved singularly unable to mount a serious challenge to the smooth functioning of American networks, either by hacking, jamming or concerted physical attacks against communications facilities. The next enemy may not be so inept.
Professional signal officers, reservists (normally found in places like Circuit City) and a legion of lower-ranking technicians were required to lash disparate systems together as well as to handle the inevitable challenges posed by heat, sand, dust and constant movement. So there is a subtle compliment to be found in the Army’s new Global Command and Control System, used in Iraq for the first time. Its acronym is GCCS—pronounced "geeks." Exactly. Can’t live without ’em.
In fact, information dominance—either in business or war—proves the worth of whatever difficulties information managers must undergo to achieve it. For the American military, the verdict on the information weapon parallels the one reached during an earlier age about airpower: Now that we have it, there is simply no way we intend to go to war again without it.
