The Coming of the Telephone
When Marine Corps Gen. James “Hoss” Cartwright stepped down as vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff he was asked what America’s greatest achievement in Afghanistan would be. He said unhesitatingly that it was providing the cell phone.
“As we leave Afghanistan, the thing that will most affect that culture over the long term is leaving behind that network and those cell phones because they are talking across mountains and social barriers that heretofore have never been crossed by that culture,” said Cartwright today at the Center for Strategic and International Studies during a speech on how information technologies are changing war. “I don’t know where that’s going to take them, but the introduction of that technology is probably far more lasting than anything else that we’re going to do in Afghanistan and far more influential.”
That is not as flippant a reply as it may seem. The cellphone may be the 21st century equivalent of the Roman roads, those ribbons of pavement which once held the Mediterranean civilization together hundreds of years. The roads are still remembered in sayings: mille viae ducunt homines per saecula Romam — all roads lead to Rome. And now the roads are virtual.
But the roads will bear what fortune brings, as General Mattis learned when he was unceremoniously replaced at CENTCOM. For all the fancy phone systems there are today Thomas Ricks wrote “I am told that General Mattis was traveling and in a meeting when an aide passed him a note telling him that the Pentagon had announced his replacement as head of Central Command. It was news to him — he hadn’t received a phone call or a heads-up from anyone at the Pentagon or the White House” .
Mattis momentarily found himself in the pre-cellphone age. He was instructed in almost Victorian terms via the scribbled note. Thankfully it was borne by an aide. It might well have been borne by carrier pigeon.
But Mattis shouldn’t take it personally. News travels slowly in Washington to keep pace with the cogitations of statesmen. Why it took all of several months for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to realize what was at the root of her recent troubles. She gravely told US lawmakers that the Arab Spring shattered security in region.
“Benghazi didn’t happen in a vacuum,” Mrs Clinton said at the start of the hearing. “The Arab revolutions have scrambled power dynamics and shattered security forces across the region.”
After conveying this insight to the lawmakers, she expressed her determination to put things to rights. “We cannot afford to retreat now. When America is absent, especially from unstable environments, there are consequences. Extremism takes root, our interests suffer, and our security at home is threatened,” she said. She would yet leave the world safer than she found it.
And to do that she would need to clean house. Now if only she could fire the deadwood in the State Department, she explained to those who wondered why she had still not acted against those who performed poorly during the crisis at Benghazi. Due to a fault in the law (it’s always Congress’ fault) the State Department employees under her charge were apparently harder to get rid of than four star generals at CENTCOM.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton confirmed this week that several employees who were “removed” from their positions in the wake of the Libya terror attack are still being paid and have not actually left her department …
“Under federal statute and regulations, unsatisfactory leadership is not grounds for finding a breach of duty,” she said. “And the (review board) did not find that these four individuals breached their duty.”
You’ve got to do a whole lot more than mess up while couple of US consulates burn down to get Hillary going — something really dire — like make a video or something. Perhaps Hillary should’ve taken a page from Mattis incident and wait until these functionaries were traveling then send them a note. It worked in getting rid of Mattis. It might work with them.
But messages don’t write themselves. And just as the Roman roads had no moral content in themselves, able to carry both the legions of Empire and invading barbarians with equal facility, the cell phones of today will convey drivel either way. What signals they bear is dependent not on technology, but on the goodwill or malice of the communicating parties at both ends. A tribesman at one end and Clinton on the other — what music might they make together, or vice versa. “What difference does it make?,” as Hillary once said. Well put, madame secretary. Well put.
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I hope the change in Afghanistan is for the better. Great post.
Unfortunately cell phone towers can be used to track otherwise stealth aircraft
-it is not a secret and we can disrupt any cell phone or GPS system we choose to.
The Roman Roads were important
What was most significant in the development of Western Civilization was Christianity.
Christian Civilization spread way beyond the Roman Roads-to Scandinavia-Iceland-Japan-Africa- America-etc
Christianity is the best operating system for post tribal/ethic civilization.
Based upon
Greek philosophy
Rule of Law
Property Rights
Law of War
Marriage between one man and one woman
Condemnation of pederasty
Universities and Hospitals
The emergence of Science over superstitions and tribal cults
Western Civilization is Christian Civilization
Islamic Civilization also made significant contributions to the arts, science and technology in the Dark Ages
-built upon their adoption of Persian, Greek and Byzantium culture.
Outstanding, wretchard. Put this one in your Pulitzer folder.
Hoss may be right about the phones, or wrong – if Afghanistan still lacked them when we arrived in 2003, they were very nearly the last place on Earth not to have them. I have not noticed their presence has improved Libya or Syria much, or Iran – or as you point out, Washington.
Maybe General Hoss can bring some goats back for the Obambuses to raise on the White House lawn, maybe they’ll bring a civilizing influence here.
Clinton is, of course, correct. Nothing matters–there are no consequences–anymore. Pols lie with impunity. Not modest lies, mind you, perhaps explained away by confusion or shades of gray. Spectacular lies. And? Silence.
The media says anything it pleases, or ignores anything that doesn’t please. Billions of customer money disappears from segregated accounts with nary a fare-thee-well, while the CEO-perpetrator bundle-bundle-bundles as his penance. It seems like nowadays you’ve got to have a drug addiction or murder a few dozen innocent children to get what you got coming. Everyone else walks.
Our quota of impossible things to believe before breakfast has hit the knee of the curve.
My expectation is that the Taliban will destroy the cell towers except for a few kept as a link only for members of the Inner Circle. Just as you can look at photos of Muslim countries 40-50 years ago that have symbols of prosperity and western looking young men and women that now would show largely destruction regression and costumed reactionaries you can expect that Afghanistan will rapidly run backwards as the Islamists eradicate evidence of the American presence. Islam does that, it scrapes off history and connections to other systems. Bernard Lewis has written about that.
Congress must Do Something. They need to write a bill defining a Breach of Duty that justifies termination. Misconduct or failure to act that results in the loss of American lives would be a good start. They need to ram bills like that down Harry Reid’s throat until he chokes them up onto Obama’s desk.
Oh, I can see it now. Someone with a cushy job in Foggy Bottom will know he screwed up when he suddenly gets posted to an obscure and minimally secure consulate that is surrounded by terrorist militias. It is coming to look as though a consular posting to a deathtrap may become a form of de facto “discipline” that uses the enemy’s propensity to murder our diplomats to punish “unsatisfactory leadership” from State Department staffers.
It would be easy to suspect that security at the Benghazi consulate was undermined due to the unpopularity of Ambassador Stevens among some insiders at the State Department. So, given that discipline for “unsatisfactory leadership” just isn’t done, posting the staffer to some uncomfortable and unsafe location would appear to be the only other option a Secretary of State would have…
Alexis, I think you are a little closer to the truth of Stevens death than you think.
There is always a lot of gunrunning in the mideast. With the fall of Quadaffi in Libya and the rebellion against Assad in Syria, the volume has of course increased.
I am willing to bet that mixed in to what can only be considered normal if exaggerated was some Obamaroid mideastern version of Fast and Furious. Stevens
was trying to either put a halt to that latter or at least practice some damage control. That angered the perps who then saw to it that reinforcements were not available and that even close fire support was withheld at the last moment.
I’ve no confirmed information to back this up but would you not agree that my theory matches the ongoing pathologies of the encumbrance?
Interestingly, when Cambodia was being rebuilt after the abomination that was the Khmer Rouge had been removed, they seem to have decided that it was cheaper and more flexible to go “mobile” for much of the country’s phone services.
The downside of such a system is that, whilst it has a lot of redundancy and “self-repair” capability. it requires a lot of dedicated, skilled technicians to keep it working smoothly. A properly installed, 19th. Century spec, “copper” network can be run on a slightly lower level of technology. If the cables are underground, they are reasonably safe from most of the elements, most of the time. Acts of war, terrorism or extreme weather, fire etc. may cause variations in mileage.
Someone might want to drop a dime to Mizz Thunderthighs – let her know that tens of thousands of fed-up Arabs are risking their lives in Egypt protesting against the brutal and corrupt Egyptian Government… Someone might want to suggest that this might be a great opportunity to throw in with the rabble, help topple a hideous regime, and possibly usher in an Arab awakening of some kind which might sweep the region… Someone might…
Aw, what does it matter? Never mind.
Before Rome it was, and remains, “All roads lead to Damascus.”
Isaiah knew it as well as Eashua. And where there is Liberty surely there is also the Lord.
GW Bush opened up a can of Starfish on the Web.
But messages don’t write themselves. And just as the Roman roads had no moral content in themselves, able to carry both the legions of Empire and invading barbarians with equal facility, the cell phones of today will convey drivel either way. What signals they bear is dependent not on technology, but on the goodwill or malice of the communicating parties at both ends.
And Coke doesn’t buy itself. Given that the population of the US makes up about 5% of the global population, if every American would buy one 24 can case of Coke at $12.99 http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/208206/Coca-Cola-Classic-12-Oz-Case/, we really could “Give the world a Coke”. It would take about $4 billion to “git ‘er done!”
None of this “I’d like to…” baloney, put it in the past tense, “I did buy the world a Coke.”
But as Kipling so aptly put it, “IF” http://www.kipling.org.uk/poems_if.htm
In other words,
Mr. Assad, heaven is on line one.
Shall I patch you through?
“You’ve got to do a whole lot more than mess up while couple of US consulates burn down to get Hillary going — something really dire — like make a video or something.”
I am hoping in the future the secular atheists and agnostics see the wisdom of passing a law not to MOCK the three Abraham faiths. Those born free why mess with your freedoms as Adam and Eve do and as Pharaoh do with Moses. The same for Israel secular now attempting to get faith Jews into the military who refuse because they do not want to be at war with the True God
The slave coming into freedom seems wiser than the stubborn born into freedom and finds he or she is fighting against the True God and then thrown into hell for eternity
yikes
Even Jesus could not save them when he say : father forgive them for they know not what they do. What freedom you have to be atheist or agnostic until you take your last breath
yikes
Let God be the judge with the three Abraham faiths and not the prideful born in freedom type babes in the woods. It’s bad enough the agendas of the crafty worm tongues manipulating strife and division among believers (judgement begins with the house of the Lord)to deal with better to stay agnostic than to leap into strong atheist stubborn Pharaoh type faith I believe if the True God has a plan you do not have the ability to understand
so nice law not to mock people’s faith in God wise I believe
So the local Taliban blew up the cell tower because they said cell phones encourage immorality. This angered those who had been watching the Bollywood stuff and etc. on their cellphones and they turned them in or is some cases snuffed the Taliban themselves.
Meanwhile in the US a motorcycle rider earned the Darwin trying to text on the highway and did a head on with an embankment.
The South Koreans installed high band width everywhere and now they have problems young people who are internet addicts and who are too out of shape for their military service. Meanwhile N. Korea thought police run in circles trying to keep the populace from finding out how much better the S. Koreans and even the Chinese have it via cell phones and smuggled video.
A double edged sword indeed.
Rejoice Israel.
Deliverence is at hand
It’s the SMART phone that’s doing the ‘damage.’
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I post a comment over at the LWJ…
Now it’s a mainstream meme.
Unless the General reads the LWJ, I must put it down to coincidence.
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I’m starting to wonder if the Pink House follows the blogs.
For it’s been of considered debate whether the ISAF is funding BOTH sides of the Afghanistan Campaign — from the outset.
==========
Years and years ago, here at the BC, I debated ‘Old Blue’ WRT Afghanistan. I contended that it was unsuitable for strategic effect; but that IF and only if 0bomba was committed to ramping up the ISAF — then I would recommend that a blocking force be inserted south out of Kandahar — an area outside of previous American concentration.
I further advocated that water wells must be the driving topology of the opfor.
(Beau Geste and all of that)
Weird how things turn out, coincidences and all that.
(Old Blue claimed to be a staff officer at Bagram Airfield.)
============
There is some buzz that northern Mali has massive natural gas deposits in strata common to that of Algeria.
As Kenya shows, it may turn out that THE big new thing in oil discovery is AFRICA. Politics had kept the exploration teams out. Necessity may lure them forth.
Whereas OPEC has been a muslim dominated cartel — time and abundance may cause it to evaporate — as the swing producers arise in Africa.
Exploration there has been so limited, just about anything seems possible.
If there is one consistent theme with African oil deposits — it’s that they are almost uniformly light and sweet crudes.
===========
Hubbert’s logic assumed that exploration and discovery was unimpeded by politics. It is now obvious that nothing is more political than oil. The vast, vast tracts held off the market — even until now — indicate that we still can’t construct a Hubbert curve for natural gas nor oil deposits.
The Law of Unintended Consequences
Hanoi Jane Fonda thought we loved her for her mind, when we really loved the view of the North side of Jane Fonda as she rode South
http://youtu.be/AR1GokIJvBY?t=7m42s
Once the Afghans have cell phones, anyone who wants to take them away will be a bad person. So if the Taliban destroys the cell towers and can’t fix them, they will become The Great Satan among Afghanistan’s “low information voters.
We can take them away as a punishment, but we can also give them back. Or we could just cut them off for not paying their bill! We are such greedy capitalists! I do not remember which film it was (Our Man Flint, In Like Flint??), but in one of them from the ’60s, it turned out that the evilest villain of them all was “Ma Bell”.
How can we do our sexting if you turn off my phone??
WAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!!!!
It’s a case of “Hello Central, Give Me No Man’s Land.” (Y’all look that one up; it was a popular song about 100 years ago). But now Central really can give you No Man’s Land.
And the SECSTATE has at last figured out what we lower level people have known for most of our adult lives. Firing a government civilian employee for cause is a difficult, lenthy, process with little chance of success.
And maybe she now understand why GWB fired those 7 US Attorneys who were not getting the job done. Remember that absurd flap? Firing all of them was Okay, according to Hillary! Firing just 7 for cause was terrible, said she.
Those who forget the past (because they were stoned all through the Sixties) are doomed to repeat it.
Spy cam video from Michelle Obama’s office http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8SpXLNtD3Y
Putting it as politely as I can, Ms Clinton was under the mis-apprehension that the job of Secretary of State included pumping up the frequent flyer miles account as its main component. That seems to be the only thing she accomplished except for leaving inept or insubordinate bureaucrats to continue their efforts undisturbed in the bowels of State, along with fostering {perhaps by neglect} the eruptions in the Mid-East, Northern Africa, and {South}West Asia. Please, relate her accomplishments in the last four years that so justify the compliments after her testimony.
She should have known after her time riding on Bill’s coat tails that civil servants were entrenched critters that would ‘be there after you left’, as I heard at NavFinCen. You could raise ruckus and work to oust an incompetent or attempt to block their promotion, but they would still be there, toiling away in the bowels long after you were transferred or, in her case, elected to office or appointed Sec State. She should have known to get the most incompetent or hostile transferred to jobs where they could do the least damage. She didn’t, or was too lazy to inquire and take appropriate action. It IS her fault, and it should matter.
tom
MachiasPrivateer @ 17
You may be thinking of “The President’s Analyst”, starring James Coburn as the President’s Analyst. The enemy in the movie, was, indeed, The Phone Company, TPC.
Still a pretty funny satire, which also seems closer to coming true in these days of massive information and the money to be made from mining data and controlling that flow of information.
Interesting that it may also be much easier for NSA systems to match their monitoring computers and software to a digital cell phone system than an old fashioned copper wire analog system. The Taliban may indeed destroy the cell phone towers to keep the NSA from listening to what they are doing.
David @ 21 – Thank you!
God must love low information voters because He made so many of them.
Why would we put women into combat when we can put them in the kitchen baking cookies? Even Oscar the Grouch loves COOOOOOOOOOOKIES!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dc3gdrcbFAo
Best of all, they can even do it “barefoot and pregnant”, after all they DO need to eat for two!
Quick! Somebody needs to buy the CIA’s Valkyrie, Maya the Redhead http://www.imdb.com/media/rm3705449984/nm1567113 , a Suzy Homemaker oven! That will cheer her up!!
@MachiasPrivateer
I don’t disagree with you objections to trying to make women “barefoot and pregnant”, but we need to ask ourselves, when the young women start coming home in body bags, can we as a society accept that sad fact?
“Under federal statute and regulations, unsatisfactory leadership is not grounds for finding a breach of duty”
This precisely the source of rot in our institutions. Try doing a crappy job in industry and see where it gets you. A major corporation makes a mistake and the feds swoop in with onerous investigations, audits and fines. When the government makes mistakes, “what difference does it make?”. They have immunity.
This is why there is a petition circulating about demanding that congress make no law in which they (the elite) exclude themselves. Were it to pass it would solve a lot of problems and bring back confidence in the foundations of our society. It will not pass. Hell, it will not make it to the floor, it would be too popular.
Epitaphs;
Greece – Rome can’t conquer us, they can’t even spell arigula
Rome – I can’t stand guard, I’ll miss the games
French Revolution – We need an Iron Hand to punish the enemies of the revolution
Confederacy – ‘Died of a theory’
U.S.A. – ‘What difference does it make?’
Re #5. Blast From the Past
“…Congress must Do Something…”
Huh???
They didn’t even stripped pork from Sandy bill and you want them to upset an applecart?
Good luck.
Roman roads were passive in a sense that they were functional for a few generations without any serious repairs. It would be interesting to see how well Taliban will be able to maintain cell network. Although I suspect that we will do it for them.
re “barefoot and pregnant” @ 22
Maya the Redhead is approximately 34 years old, college grad at 22 plus 12 years hunting Bin Laden. NOW is the time for her to get pregnant, just ask Holly Finn http://preview.tinyurl.com/av3bqwq
The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach!
So she should get detailed to London, bake some cookies, give them to Prince Harry and beat Pippa down the aisle!
Kate Middleton is a HUGE improvement over Diana! Maya would be a HUGE improvement over Fergie!
Plus she could help a sister out (Pippa) who could then do http://pippasass.com/ Part II
Duchess Maya of America!!
5. Blast From the Past
If Congress ever passed legislation defining Breach of Duty justifying termination, at least 90 Senators and 85% of House members would be out on their posteriors.
Re Afghanistan: this is a little OT but I’ve just started Into The Land Of Bones, the history of Alexander’s experience in ”Bactria”. After a while all you can think is ”what were we thinking?”
First posted at the LWJ January 6, 2013
“What’s killing the opfor is the Smart Phone. It’s irresistible.
Any iPad functions as an instant grammar school diploma.
I’ve already seen jazzed Pashtuns staring at Google maps on an iPhone — held by a US Army junior officer. Smart phones leap past the need to read — and are particularly sweet for the nimble fingers of the young.
The WHOLE basis of the opfor is lies and ignorance. Smart phones/ iPads permit the natives an opportunity to see the world — same as we do — without leaving their huts.
The last time Afghanistan was this shaken up — Alexander was passing through.
Our boys will never be forgotten. They’ve jacked the Afghans into the rest of the planet.
The focus of the ISAF should be to dominate this information revolution; which can be done from anywhere.”
I’m now seeing my sentiments everywhere on the Web.
Just another Belmont Club coincidence, I think.
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Gordon @30
Please peruse the BC chronicles….
The Club was up to speed years and years back.
Strictly speaking Bactria is normally considered to refer to the lands north of Afghanistan — hence the term bactrian camel — which is not native to Afghanistan.
The Greeks found fighting in the featureless wastes of the arid southern steppes to be absolutely brutal. It was impossible to live off the land — and the opfor’s primary strategic gambit was to get opponents lost — and then destroy them by starvation.
It didn’t work on Alexander. He thought it was a pretty good try, though.
Blert–
No need to peruse, I’ve been a BCer probably from near the beginning and ”up to speed” since we started putting in KFC, etc in our bases–our usual way to fight a war. I knew then the Afghs would not be singing Kumbaya any time soon. The book I mentioned only reinforced all that.
The author calls it ”Bactria” and I presume so did Alexander and I also know about the camels.
Indeed the author goes on to point out that that portion of the Persian Empire was indeed called ”Bactria” in that time of 300-something BC and the provincial capital was located on the Bactrus River.
A little knowledge can trip you up, no?