Danske droner: TV til taliban?

Wired's eminente blog Danger Room har fulgt afsløringerne af hvordan den amerikanske hær opdagede at videosignalerne fra deres ubemandede fly (droner) blev hentet ned af irakiske oprørere. Opdagelsen blev gjort da hæren gennemsøgte huse og fandt bærbare computere fyldt med videooptagelser af oprørerne - vel at mærke lavet fra deres egne droner.

Een af de mest sårbare droner er typen "Raven". Det danske forsvar har denne type droner, som grundlæggende bare er en lille håndholdt, fjernstyret flyver. Ravnen, som den danske udgave hedder, sprøjter ubekymret radiosignaler i alle retninger og alle og enhver der kan fange dem, kan se dem - med mindre de altså er krypterede. De amerikanske Ravens var ikke og det bliver der nu arbejdet på højtryk med at rette. Men hvad med de danske? Efter fiaskoen med Tårnfalken er Ravnen den mest udbredte UAV i Forsvaret og den bliver brugt i Afghanistan.

Iraq, Vietnam and national trauma

The Iraq war is becoming more and more reminiscent of the Vietnam war. Foreign Policy poke some grim fun of that comparison, by altering a brief from the Vietnam war on the repercussions of defeat - merelyreplacing "Vietnam" with Iraq.

But the Washington Post presents a piece of journalism that draws on the vast topical luggage of the Vietnam war, when they paint the situation of a 20-year combat veteran at the psychiatric ward of Walter Reed hospital.

Little Relief on Ward 53 - washingtonpost.com. A chilling read that draws on the tradition of alienated combat veterans in American society. Among other horrors of the clash between bureaucracy and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is when the veteran is approached by an official who tries to make the soldier wear a patch to stop smoking: "The surgeon general is concerned about all the soldiers coming home with smoking habits," as he says.

If nothing else, the US will have gotten a grand, dark hole, from which will crawl magnificent monsters of literature, art and senseless violence in the years to come, as a large number of young men return with death on their mind. One of the veterans frame this, and echoes his colleagues 30-40 years back:

"All the banners said 'Welcome Home Heroes,' " Rearick said. "But the moment we start falling apart it's like, 'Never mind.' For us, it was the beginning of the dark ages. It was the dreams. It was going to the store and buying bottles of Tylenol PM and bottles of Jack."