Open Source Warfare

I don't agree with everything in this essay, but it certainly has a refreshing re-think of the lay of the land. Anyway, I figured my fellow Orgahs would enjoy chewing it over.

The conflict in Iraq has foreshadowed the future of global security in much the same way that the Spanish Civil War prefigured World War II. Unlike previous insurgencies, the one in Iraq is comprised of 75 to 100 small, diverse, and autonomous groups of zealots, patriots, and criminals alike. These groups, of course, have access to the same tools we do--from satellite phones to engineering degrees--and use them every bit as well. But their single most important asset is their organizational structure, an open-source community network very similar to what we now see in the software industry. It is an extremely innovative structure, sadly, and results in decision-making cycles much shorter than those of the U.S. military. Indeed, because the insurgents in Iraq lack a recognizable center of gravity--a leadership structure or an ideology--they are nearly immune to the application of conventional military force. Like Microsoft, the software superpower, the United States hasn't found its match in a competitor similar to itself, but rather in a loose, self-tuning network.

The way the topic in the article is presented and the parallels drawn are simply trolling and flamebait in my view, BUT I do largely agree with the concept. Simply put, it's decentralization vs. consolidation. The decentralized fragmented nature of the terrorist cells makes it that much harder to track and engage by the US military.

Decentralized guerrilla forces ain't nothin' new as far as I know, right? Whereas open-source software as a sizable phenomenon is something we of the digital age never really experienced before.

And the essay predicts a lot without truly justifying why it would be that way. It just paints something that looks sort of like Brazil in terms of the Rich segregating and the Middle Class segregating and the Poor being left segregated...which is also nothing new, except this one insists on pushing the not altogether new image of extreme capitalism in action as far as it could.

The essayist forgets an important point: the Internet's strength is its ability to virtually destroy the factor of distance vs time in the transfer of information. We humans ourselves -- which our physical security is tied to -- still move around in a 3D space; if somehow that kind of Unreal Tournament-esque Corporate-over-Country world blooms up, then the one who holds the EMP will very quickly shut down his enemy in one shot -- no capability for swift global communication? No global empire for ya.

Oh, and the essence of this "Open Source Warfare" is the ability of an individual or a small groups of individuals to create reaction far larger in scopes and intensity than what would've been possible by the same number of individuals in a conventional warfare. This treatise is exactly the same as the age-old and very modern concept of terrorism or 4th generation warfare or whatever. It just gives what it thinks is a conclusion resulting from widespread use of the method...decentralization to fight decentralization and all that -- a conclusion yet to be proven naturally enough.

Nonetheless, it is an interesting essay. It seems to me to confirms the viewpoint that the Nation will become increasingly irrelevant...but I don't think that trend would go that fast, not a chance in hell. In the risk of going on one of those popular pseudo-psychology trips, I also think it expresses the (very very familiar) discontent with the performance of the US Administration in "Teh War On Terror."

Of course, a buggy release here involves a number of insurgents finding themselves on the wrong side of American hardware...

I don't know what to say besides, congratulations on writing an essay on guerila warfare. More scare tactics then anything else, renaming guerila warfare to open source is pure idiocy though.

The USA in Iraq is having the same problem every power has had in supressing guerila tactics. We had this problem in the Philipines, Britian has had this problem in many of her colonies, Rome had this problem throughout it's empire. This isnt a foreshadowing of future battles. The foreshadowing is the urban warfare that is going on more and more. Urban warfare is what the next war's will see.