Lockheed and the Future of Warfare

[Steve Thompson]

 --- "R.A. Hettinga" <rah at shipwright.com> wrote: 
> <http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/28/business/yourmoney/28lock.html>
> 
> November 28, 2004
> Lockheed and the Future of Warfare
> By TIM WEINER
> 
> LOCKHEED MARTIN doesn't run the United States. But it does help run a
> breathtakingly big part of it.
>
> [LockMart: corporate patriot collective]
>
> Today, Lockheed is building weapons so smart that they can change the
> world by virtue of their precision, he said; they aim to wage war
> without the death of innocents, without weapons misfiring, without
> fatal miscalculation.

That should be a no-brainer.
 
> "I know the fog of war exists," Mr. Stevens said, adding that it could
> be lifted. "We envision a world where you don't have any more
> fratricide," no more friendly fire, he said. "With technology we've
> been able to make ourselves more secure and more humane.

Like they're going to admit otherwise...

Look, managing the perception of friendly fire statistics is super-easy. 
All you have to do is use a little set-theory to define all casualties of
war as enemies.  Presto!  No more friendly-fire incident paperwork.

Take me, for example.  The good government of Canada has been slowly but
surely flushing my life down a toilet for years and years, perhaps even
with the help of foreigners.  (Don't ask, it's a long story.}  However it
is only in the last four or five years that the authorities in question
have been able to escalate the threat I pose to their retirement cachets
and pension benefits by way of cleverly manipulating their selective
disclosure of facts[1] and by virtue of the creative misunderstanding of
what I do in the course of conducting my own self-defense[2] operation. 
911 didn't hurt them any either.

The end result is that I become an enemy of the state as a direct
consequence of the attentions and interference of state actors.  No causal
chain is allowed to officially exist linking a state-sponsored
`harassment' campaign with my subsequent bad attitude, thus I
automatically become the Bad Guy(tm), who then deserves a total loss of
civil rights and forfeiture of present and future personal property
without counterfraudulent due process.

Apparently this method was perfected some years ago, and so I conclude
that LockMart is simply borrowing the technique for their present approach
to selling their corporate image and product line to the world.


[1] Fact as used in this context is to be taken as synonymous with
'rumour', 'meme complex', 'lie', and 'distortion'.

[2] Conducted, as it were, on a budget that is significantly lower than
the net disposable income of your average pan-handler.

[3] If you happen to be curious about the details of my state of affairs,
do not hesitate to interview Geoff Miller or any of his past and present
professional associates.

> "And we aren't there yet - but we sure have pioneered the kind of work
> that is taking us well along that trajectory. And there's a lot of
> evidence that says we're doing well. And we're setting the bar high
> and we expect to be able to do that. Now that's pretty exciting stuff.

Corporate productspeak for `nyah, nyah, nyah."
 
> "I don't say this lightly," he said. "Our industry has contributed to
> a change in humankind."

BFD.  The medical industry has also contributed to a 'change in
humankind'.  Similar sentiments can be attached to the public education
sector, the automotive industry, the steel industry, etc.  Oh, I suppose
we should not also forget the Internet and its boundless potential for
connecting people to each other for arbitrary business and leisure
activities.
 
But the really sad thing about the quoted article is that someone (or more
people) actually got paid to write it.


Regards,

Steve

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