Unmanned: Drones, Data, and the Illusion of Perfect Warfare
Page 41
7. DOD, Unmanned Systems Integrated Roadmap 2013–2018, pp. 66–68.
8. DOD, Unmanned Systems Integrated Roadmap 2013–2018, p. 24.
9. DOD, Unmanned Systems Integrated Roadmap 2013–2018, p. 29.
10. PowerPoint Briefing, UAS Operations and Comparison, Lieutenant Colonel Bruce “Shadow” Black, USAF UAS Task Force, as of March 17, 2010 (ver13).
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE Warka
1. It should be noted that some scholars suggest that Karal in Peru might be as old as Uruk, and there are other sites in northern Mesopotamia and Syria that vie for the honor of being first city; others argue in favor of Çatalhüyük in Turkey.
2. “Attempts to identify Gilgamesh in art are fraught with difficulty. Cylinder seals from the Old Akkadian period (ca. 2334–2154 B.C.) onward showing nude heroes with beards and curls grappling with lions and bovines cannot be identified with Gilgamesh. They are more likely to be associated with the god Lahmu (‘The Hairy One’). A terracotta plaque in the Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin, depicts a bearded hero grasping an ogre’s wrist while raising his right hand to attack him with a club. To his left, a beardless figure pins down the monster’s arm, pulls his hair, and is about to pierce his neck with a knife. This scene is often associated with the death of Humbaba. The Babylonian Gilgamesh epic clearly describes Enkidu as being almost identical to Gilgamesh, but no mention is made of the monster’s long hair, and although Gilgamesh is said to strike the monster with a dagger, he holds an axe rather than a club in his hand. The scene on the Berlin plaque may reflect the older Sumerian story wherein Enkidu is described as a companion rather than a double of the hero. In this older tale, Enkidu is the one who ‘severed [Huwawa’s] head at the neck.’ Similar images appear on cylinder seals of the second and first millennium B.C.” See Gilgamesh, Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, Metropolitan Museum of Art; www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/gilg/hd_gilg.htm (accessed August 1, 2013).
3. According to the British Museum, “The earliest evidence for writing in Mesopotamia was discovered in Eanna, though it is difficult to date precisely: the writing is on clay tablets that had been used as packing for foundations of later buildings. The city was surrounded by a wall that, according to later accounts, was built by Gilgamesh, a legendary king of the city. After the third millennium BC Uruk declined politically but it remained an important religious centre and its shrines were embellished by many of the later rulers of Mesopotamia. From 1912 onwards, major excavations have been undertaken by the Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft” (see The British Museum, Uruk; www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/articles/u/uruk_iraq.aspx; accessed March 31, 2014).
“After the end of Ur III [the third Mesopotamian dynasty], the city declined only to revive in the 1st millennium when its temples controlled vast agricultural estates, and flourished well into the Seleucid and Parthian periods, being finally abandoned before the Arab conquest in 634 AD.” See Central Command/Center for Environmental Management of Military Lands (CEMML) at Colorado State University, Cultural Property Training Resources, Site 115. Warka (ancient: Uruk); www.cemml.colostate.edu/cultural/09476/iraq05-115.html, accessed March 31, 2014). See also BBC News, “Gilgamesh tomb believed found,” April 29, 2003; http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2982891.stm.
4. The story of the tablet’s discovery and unveiling is a thrilling and sometimes sordid tale of perseverance, treacheries, racism, professional and institutional ambitions, and finally of religious supremacy and empire, the hubris of Western custody of a backward people, “the very proprietorship of the past.” See, especially, The Buried Book: The Loss and Rediscovery of the Great Epic of Gilgamesh, pp. 35ff, 86, 149.
5. None are in the original language, Sumerian, which linguists call a “language isolate” because it belongs to no known family and died with that ancient civilization. The Nineveh tablets were written in Akkadian, a Semitic language in a family connecting ancient Babylonian and Assyrian and modern Arabic and Hebrew. Mesopotamian-era writing of this family became not just the means to administer the first organized empire but also a way of preserving a human narrative. Thousands upon thousands of clay tablets and fragments have been recovered, recording everything: “receipts for oxen, slaves, and casks of wine, petitions to the Assyrian kings, contracts, treaties, prayers, and reports of omens the gods had planted in sheep’s livers.” The Buried Book: The Loss and Rediscovery of the Great Epic of Gilgamesh, p. 10.
6. The Buried Book: The Loss and Rediscovery of the Great Epic of Gilgamesh, pp. 60–61.
7. See The Epic of Gilgamesh: A New Translation, pp. xxvii–xxxviii.
8. Gilgamesh: A Verse Narrative by Herbert Mason with an Afterword by John H. Marks, p. 98.
For an interesting tale of how our understanding of Mesopotamia continues to evolve through science, specifically declassified satellite imagery from the 1960s and 1970s, see Eric Rupley, “Science in a Complex World: Declassification of data important to future science,” The New Mexican (Santa Fe), Sunday, February 2, 2014; www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/science-in-a-complex-world-declassification-of-data-important-to/article_1687dbb5-71d0-5537-88b5-0fb860044bb0.html (accessed February 2, 2014).
9. The Buried Book: The Loss and Rediscovery of the Great Epic of Gilgamesh, p. 254.
10. Army Infantry Center, Maneuver Self Study Program; Moral, Ethical, and Psychological Dimensions of War; www.benning.army.mil/mssp/MEPDOW/ (accessed October 9, 2013).
See also J. E. Lendon, Soldiers and Ghosts: A History of Battle in Classical Antiquity (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005).
11. Robert Gates makes the observation about the rapid turnover in Duty, p. 37.
12. When Arnett asked Hussein what he hoped for with the interview, he thanked “those people who are coming out onto the streets, demonstrating against this war.” Iraqi propagandists had filled the prewar airwaves with endless programs about antiwar protests in the United States and around the world as a means to mobilize public opinion to see Bush as the culprit in the face of popular opposition. Saddam was evidently a victim of his own propaganda; Peter Arnett, Live from the Battlefield: From Vietnam to Baghdad—35 Years in the World’s War Zones (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994), pp. 401–402.
13. CENTCOM SITREP for 122115Z February 1991 (February 12, 1991), referred to in An Air Staff Chronology of Desert Shield-Desert Storm, p. 323; Gulf War Air Power Survey (GWAPS), Volume V, Part II, p. 211.
14. See “White House Statement on the Bombing,” Washington Post, February 14, 1991; UPI (Washington), “Cheney Says Saddam Using Holy Site to Protect Arsenal,” February 14, 1991; UPI (Northern Saudi Arabia), “Schwarzkopf Defends US Bombings,” February 14, 1991; Warren Strobel, “US scrutinized after bombing Iraqi civilians,” Washington Times, February 14, 1991.
See also DOD News Briefing, Mr. Pete Williams, Lieutenant General Thomas Kelly, USA, Rear Admiral Mike McConnell, USN, Saturday, February 16, 1991, 3:30 PM EST; DOD News Briefing, Mr. Pete Williams, Lieutenant General Thomas Kelly, USA, Rear Admiral Mike McConnell, USN, Tuesday, February 19, 1991, 3:30 PM EST.
15. See, in particular, Fred Kaplan, The Insurgents: David Petraeus and the Plot to Change the American Way of War (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2013), a lively and incisive though completely myopic narrative.
16. The White House, Office of the Press Secretary, Remarks by the President on the Situation in Iraq, James S. Brady Press Briefing Room, June 19, 2014, 1:32 p.m. EDT.
17. Talking Points on Air Force’s Efforts in the Bombing and Death of Al Zarqawi, Based on the transcript of Lieutenant General [Gary] North,” June 8, 2006, obtained by the author.
18. The Buried Book: The Loss and Rediscovery of the Great Epic of Gilgamesh, pp. 222–226.
EPILOGUE The Event
1. “As a safety feature of most UAS autopilots, the system can perform a ‘lost-link’ procedure if communication becomes severed between the ground control station and the air vehicle. There are many different ways that these systems execute this procedure. Most of
these procedures involve creating a lost-link profile where the mission flight profiles (altitudes, flight path, and speeds) are loaded into the memory of the system prior to aircraft launch. Once the aircraft is launched, the autopilot will fly the mission profile as long as it remains in radio contact with the ground control station. The mission or lost-link profile can be modified when necessary if connectivity remains during flight. If contact with the ground station is lost in flight, the autopilot will execute its preprogrammed lost-link profile.” See Introduction to Unmanned Aircraft Systems, p. 20.
2. Inside the Quadrotor Thunderdome, UAV Vision (Blog), www.uasvision.com/2011/04/04/inside-the-quadrotor-thunderdome/ (posted on April 4, 2011).
3. BirdXPeller Predator Drone Scares Off Real Birds; UAV Vision (Blog), www.uasvision.com/2011/03/24/birdxpeller-predator-drone-scares-off-real-birds/ (posted on March 24, 2011).
4. RAF, Air Power UAVs: The Wider Context, p. 50.
5. “The DoD expects its inventory of aircraft, both conventionally manned as well as unmanned, to grow to 27,000 vehicles by 2035, including 8,000 traditional aircraft, 14,000 UAS of all sizes and types, and 5,000 new aircraft with UAS technologies for pilot augmentation or optional pilot replacement.” UAS Service Demand 2015–2035, August 2013, p. 3.
“Between 2015 and 2035, it is expected that federal agency UAS fleets will grow from a few hundred to approximately 10,000, with over 90 percent of these vehicles categorized as Nano, Micro, or Small UAS.” UAS Service Demand 2015–2035, August 2013, p. 5.
“From the modest acquisition of a few hundred UAS in 2015, state UAS inventories are expected to grow to 10,000 vehicles by 2035. These estimates include modest UAS inventories at colleges and universities.
“All told, the federal and state sectors are forecast to be collectively operating some 36,000 UAS vehicles by 2035. This number is comparable to the Nano, Micro, and Small UAS forecasts for local governments; especially including some 18,000 metropolitan police departments and other first responders. The number of UAS vehicles forecast for first responders jumps from a few hundred in 2015 to a number almost equal to all others except the commercial sector—some 34,000 UAS vehicles by 2035. This means an expected population of 70,000 state and local public UAS by 2035.” UAS Service Demand 2015–2035, August 2013, p. 6.
“As markets are defined and refined, it is expected that beginning in the 2022 to 2023 period commercial sales of UAS vehicles, including products and services, will experience accelerated growth with total UAS vehicles approaching 250,000 by 2035, of which 175,000 will be in the commercial marketplace.” UAS Service Demand 2015–2035, August 2013, p. 7.
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Contents
Cover
Title Page
Welcome
Dedication
Introduction
1. Search of the Wind
2. Dead Reckoning
3. Fire and Forget
4. Trojan Spirit
5. Dialogue of the Deaf
6. Another Plane
7. Inherit the Wind
8. My Back Is Killing Me
9. The Machine Builds
10. The Split
11. The Explosion
12. Flock of Birds
13. Mind-Set over Mind
14. Gilgamesh Calling
15. Beyond the Speed of War
16. X-Men
17. Ring of Fiber
18. Command Post of the Future
19. Oh. Obama Was Elected.
20. Pattern of Life
21. Warka
Epilogue: The Event
Photos
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Also by William M. Arkin
Notes
Newsletters
Copyright
Copyright
The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
Copyright © 2015 by William M. Arkin
Author photograph by Luciano Frigerio
Cover design by Archie Ferguson
Cover copyright © 2015 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at permissions@hbgusa.com. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
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ISBN 978-0-316-32336-9
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