{"id":357204,"date":"2018-04-17T19:00:55","date_gmt":"2018-04-17T18:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/technology-substitutes-for-strategy-in-us-military-operations\/"},"modified":"2018-04-17T19:00:55","modified_gmt":"2018-04-17T18:00:55","slug":"technology-substitutes-for-strategy-in-us-military-operations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/technology-substitutes-for-strategy-in-us-military-operations\/","title":{"rendered":"Technology Substitutes for Strategy in US\u00a0Military\u00a0Operations"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Once again, the U.S. military has launched Tomahawk cruise missiles against Syria, as well as a new weapon called the JASSM-ER, described as \u201ca stealthy long-range air-fired cruise missile.\u201d According to FP: Foreign Policy<\/em>, the latter weapon is \u201clikely being closely watched in Tokyo, where military officials are considering purchasing the missile to give the country\u2019s military a long-range strike capability against North Korean targets, Japan Times <\/em>reports<\/strong><\/a>.\u201d In short, the US military demonstrated a new weapon for an ally and potential client while striking a country (Syria) that has no way of striking back directly at the US<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a report from Defense Industry Daily<\/a> on the weapons used:<\/p>\n

April 16\/18: JASSM-ER makes its combat debut <\/em><\/strong>The USAF has fired Lockheed Martin\u2019s AGM-158B Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile Extended Range (JASSM-ER<\/strong><\/a>) missile in combat for the first time. 19 such missiles were launched from two B-1B Lancer bombers during last weekend\u2019s sortie against Syrian chemical weapon research and storage facilities, and were joined by 57 Tomahawk<\/strong><\/a> missiles launched from US naval assets, as well as Storm Shadow and SCALP missiles from British and French warplanes. While Russian sources in Syria claim that Russian and Syrian air defenses managed to down 71 or the total 105 cruise missiles launched during the Friday night operation \u2013 claims Washington refutes \u2013 a report on the mission by the Aviationist<\/strong><\/a> reckon the newer missiles \u2013 in particular the JASSM-ER, SCALP and Storm Shadow \u2013 would have been highly effective against their targets. <\/em><\/p>\n

One thing is certain: business is booming yet again for Lockheed Martin.<\/p>\n

Technology shapes thought even as it becomes a substitute for it. It amazes me, for example, how the US military threw technology at the \u201cproblem\u201d of Vietnam in an attempt to \u201cwin\u201d that war. Everything short of nuclear weapons was unleashed on Southeast Asia, yet those brave people refused to surrender. US Presidents from Kennedy to Nixon were always sending messages through airpower and other forms of destructive technology, but the Vietnamese couldn\u2019t have cared less about those \u201cmessages.\u201d They had one goal: expel the invader, unify the country, and they stuck to it despite all the high explosive, napalm, defoliants, electronic fences, and everything else inflicted upon them.<\/p>\n

Americans tend to see technology as a panacea. Even deadly technology. So, for example, what\u2019s the proposed solution to gun violence in the USA? According to the NRA and our president, it\u2019s more guns. What\u2019s the solution to violence in Syria? According to the military and our president, it\u2019s more bombs and missiles. One clear winner emerges here: those who produce the guns, bombs, and missiles.<\/p>\n

Tomahawks and drones and similar weapons are all about action at a distance. They incur no risk of harm to US troops. As a result, America\u2019s leaders use them liberally to send \u201csignals\u201d and to add to the body…<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Once again, the U.S. military has launched Tomahawk cruise missiles against Syria, as well as a new weapon called the JASSM-ER, described as \u201ca stealthy long-range air-fired cruise missile.\u201d According to FP: Foreign Policy, the latter weapon is \u201clikely being closely watched in Tokyo, where military officials are considering purchasing the missile to give the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2519,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-357204","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2519"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=357204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357204\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}