US Military vs. Global South Cities

[buzzsaw_23]

US Military vs. Global South Cities

by Stephen Graham

July 20, 2005
 
Western military theorists and researchers are increasingly preoccupied with how  the rapid growth of cities in the global south undermine their technological advantages over non-state insurgents. In particular, a concerted effort is being made to redesign and reequip the United State military so that its raison d’ êtré becomes the violent take over and control of the mega cities of the global south. After three decades when the US military concentrated on global surveillance, power projection, and the avoidance of ground fighting in urban environments,  US high-tech surveillance and targeting power is now being redesigned to actually target and control the very micro geographies of global south cities.

With the bloody results of the urban insurgency in Iraq adding evidence to support their views every day, many leading military theorists in the US now argue that the urban terrain in poor, global south countries is a great leveller between high-tech US forces and their low-tech and usually informally organised and poorly equipped adversaries. The complex and congested terrain below, within, and above cities are thus widely viewed by US military commanders and theorists as a set of spaces which limit the effectiveness of the high-tech space-targeted bombs, surveillance systems, and automated, ‘network-centric’ and ‘precision’ weapons developed during the Cold War. A US Defense Intelligence Reference Document for example, argues  that “the urban environment negates the abilities of present US military communications equipment.”  This results in dead spots which severely undermine the principles and technologies of ‘network-centric warfare’” – the style of high-tech targeting  and killing that is the preferred mode of operation amongst the US military these days.  Global south cities are thus seen to be refuges which shelter insurgent groups from the overwhelming technological superiority of US forces. The major military think tank RAND report ed recently that this is leading to what they call the ‘urbanization of insurgency’.”

The result of such debates within the US military are major programmes designed to develop high-tech weapons systems which are deliberately designed to be most effective in global south cities and so remove the function of such places as refuges from the high-tech killing power of US forces. Using the usual euphemisms and techo-babble of the military, Major Lee Grubbs  of the US Army argued recently in a US military report that U.S. forces need to be redefined so that their main purpose is, in his words, to:
“create operational shock in the urban environment. Operational shock as an urban operational concept depends on selective influence. The utility to selectively influence depends on a deep understanding of the battlespace to identify causality between critical point, action, and effect achieved. The level of situational understanding within the infinite relationships of any enemy system and the urban area requires a variation on the doctrinal development of an understanding of the city and operational design. Operational design and a process for understanding the city becomes critical for the selection of critical points to destroy, control and influence. The challenge is the development of an executable operational concept for achieving systematic, across the entire system, effects within the urban environment through the selective use of force”

<snip>

The broader tragedy, of course, is that these military debates and fantasies translate the human richness of whole global south cities and their residents to mere ‘targets’ to be assaulted and annihilated at will. They reduce the politics of imperial empire to an age-old quest for using the technological advantage of the colonising power  to exterminate those who might politically oppose it. And they fundamentally rest on the essentially racist idea that life in the global south is essentially worthless and expendable.

[bemildred]

1. Link?

These people are fools. If they knew what they were about
we would not be in the mess we are in Iraq. QED.

The notion that there is some magic-techno babble that will
make colonizing Brazil, say, work better than the current boondoggle
in Iraq merely shows a continued lack of understanding of the
problem. We already make the best explosions in the world, and
if that would do the job, the job would now be done.

[buzzsaw_23]

2. Thanks-Here's the link

In the most recent issue of ZMAG this article retitled 'Redesigning the US Military' is enclosed. I found it relevant to the "Global South" city of New Orleans or Falluja or......

These people ARE fools and tragically have their fingers on the buttons.


http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=40&ItemID=8346

:hi:

[bemildred]

3. Thanks, I especially think the robots are funny.

You will have gazillion dollar robots being blown up
by $1500 RPGs and IEDs.