I really hesitate to jump into any sort of political debate over the ethics of war... I take General Sherman's "war is hell" literally. Regardless of your political position,
use your power of the ballot to set the direction your elected leaders may choose... in my opinion, it is THE most under-used right of US citizenry...and regretfully so (stepping off soapbox).
Recent events regarding the distribution of images by allied (not all of the terrible images were American, by the way) troups and the response by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, point to what I have described before as the
generational gap in technology. Right or wrong is not my concern here, but what underlying differences in the way different generations have been (and are) able to communicate during wartime is worthy of note.
Robert Plummer's article in the BBC Online, "
US powerless to halt Iraq net images" , includes a quote from Secretary Rumsfeld:
In his testimony to congressional committees, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld indicated that the flood of pictures was now beyond the US authorities' control.
"There are a lot more photographs and videos that exist," he said. "If these are released to the public, obviously it is going to make matters worse... I looked at them last night and they are hard to believe."
Rumsfeld, born in 1932, was in his teens during World War II and served in the Navy(1954-1957) in the period between the Korean War/Conflict and the Vietnam War. I am confident in assuming that his A.B. degree from Princeton in 1954 did not have a technology emphasis (please correct me if my assumption is erroneous). In a nutshell, here is my generational analysis:
Senior leader, white male Age: early 70's College experience did not include computer literacy (not a fault, just a fact)
Personal communication experince in war years - primarily handwritten or hard copy postal communication, telephone, and perhaps telegraph/telegram included
In 2004, knows how to use e-mail and can surf the Internet - when he has time, refering to his quote above regarding seeing pictures on the Internet: "...I looked at them last night and they are hard to believe."
