Ubiquitous Computing Takes a Big Step Forward

Microsoft has developed a new highly interactive computer built into a physical desktop. The technology is called "surface computing". The video gives an impressive demonstration of its capability. It reminds me of Steve Jobs' introduction to Apple's new iPhone. Both incorporate touch technology which replaces the mouse. It is easy to imagine a military application with soldiers seated around the tabletop manipulating maps and related graphics while planning an operation.

Who, Exactly, is the Enemy?

If we are to re-envision the military, then we must consider, too, the characteristics of the enemy we may be required to combat.

It is called the "war on terror". But who, exactly, are the individuals against whom this war is being fought? "Terror" or "terrorism" is a tactic or technique which groups espousing a number of causes might employ to achieve their goals. The targets of terror seem to be individuals specially selected because of their influence, or any grouping of innocent individuals chosen to maximize mayhem. The ultimate objective is to instill fear in a population such that they, in turn, will bring pressure to bear on their government to accede to the terrorists' demands.

The group which has inspired the current war is that credited with planning and implementing the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade towers in New York. That group is al-Qaeda and its allies and sympathizers. And, in Afghanistan, that would include the Taliban who provided the training camps for al-Qaeda and sheltered them despite demands for their extradition.

But what motivates al-Qaeda? The specific trigger for 9/11 may have been the presence of US forces in Saudi Arabia which followed the ejection of Iraqi forces from Kuwait in the first Gulf War in 1991. But why should that be such a big deal? If you are a Muslim who subscribes to the view that Saudi Arabia, the site of the holy shrine of Mecca, is sacred ground, then the presence of infidels (i.e. US forces) is unacceptable. A government that would authorize such a presence would, itself, be deemed unIslamic and illegitimate.

This begs the question: What kind of Muslim would that be? This brings us to the matter of Islamic fundamentalism. It is Sayyid Qutb, a leading member of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood in the 1950s and 60s, who is credited with having a major influence on Osama Bin Laden and al-Qaeda. {For more information on Qutb see "Qutbism: An Ideology of Islamic-Fascism", a pdf document.) This connection may have been through Sayyid's brother, Mohammad Qutb, who became a professor of Islamic Studies in Saudi Arabia. One of Muhammad's students was Ayman al-Zawahiri, now deemed a key mentor of Osama and a leading al-Qaeda strategist.

Reference to Islamic fundamentalism further begs the question: How might it differ from mainstream Islam? According to some sources the challenge to the West is Islam itself, as documented in the Koran and the Hadith. This is spelled out in detail in a full length video "Islam: What the West Needs to Know". An interview with Robert Spencer concerning this video may be viewed from this link.

In his books Qutb preached a fundamentalist view of Islam, such as:

• Islam is a complete system of laws, governance and economics. Western civilization is seen as the antithesis of such a system, with the US as its primary exemplar.

• Men are the managers of women.

• Muslims have a duty (jihad) to spread Islam throughout the world, including nominally Muslim countries which have adopted Western ideas of democracy and permit laws other than sharia, or simply do not practise a sufficiently pure version of Islam .

Such views underpin a desire to re-establish the Caliphate that dominated the Islamic world from the 8th to 12th centuries. Indeed, as explained by the reformed British Islamic radical, Hassan Butt, the ultimate goal is to bring Islamic justice (sharia) to the whole world. Another former radical in Britain, Shiraz Maher, writes:

One of the principal proponents of this view in Britain is Hizb ut-Tahrir, of which I was a member and regional officer for north-east England. It was through my membership of the group that I first met Bilal Abdulla and Kafeel Ahmed, the two men suspected of driving an explosive-laden jeep into Glasgow Airport.

During that year we became close friends, and met frequently to discuss politics. The atmosphere was always highly charged when we considered the decline of political Islam. We felt humiliated by it. We all believed in championing the supremacy of Islam, wanting to see a future Islamic empire dominate the world and, of course, to establish a puritanical Islamic state.

Source: http://www.newstatesman.com/200707120030

Col. Thomas Snodgrass (USAF Ret.) defines the enemy explicitly and simply as those who espouse and actively urge the adoption of sharia. A British politician has urged the banning of the above mentioned Hizb ut-Tahrir. It has recently been reported that Hizb ut-Tahrir has been gaining adherents in the West Bank. This may indicate that the political failure of Hamas will not foreshadow a return to secularism.

Wahhabism, a variant of the Sunni religion, espouses a literal interpretation of the hadith (sayings of the prophet Mohammad). While there are Saudi dissidents who oppose it, it is the dominant religion of Saudi Arabia and of the Saudi royal family. This would seem to provide an environment or mindset in which Qutb's ideas could flourish. The royal family financially supports mosques in the US (and Europe) whose imams urge Muslims not to associate with the American or European infidels. It is perhaps not surprising, then, that 15 of the 19 9/11 hijackers were Saudi citizens. What is surprising, however, is that Saudi Arabia is still a major ally of the US, and apparently actively hunts down radical Islamists in their midst. But, then, al-Qaeda (itself founded by Osama bin Laden, a Saudi citizen) does seek to overthrow the West-friendly governments of Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan. All this serves to remind us of the widely varying views of what really constitutes Islam.

Qutb's writings may play a role in the present era similar to that of Marx's "Das Capital" and Hitler's "Mein Kampf" in the spread of Communism and Nazism respectively in the 20th Century. Communism was an explicitly atheistic philosophy (at least as practised in the USSR) while Nazism had a major element of religiosity in its opposition to Jews and in the tacit approval by Christian groups in Germany. In the current Islamic extremism, however, religion is the dominant force, indeed its sole raison d'être, while other religious views, political systems and economies are seen as the pagan rites of heathens (infidels). Another significant difference with the earlier two philosophies is that they were state-based (USSR and Germany) after their proponents gained political control, while, since the ousting of the Taliban government in Afghanistan, al-Qaeda is not state-based or supported. Iran, transformed by the Grand Ayatollah Khomeini after the overthrow of the Shah in 1979, may be sympathetic and some evidence indicates the active but secret involvement of the Revolutionary Guard in providing aid to Iraqi Shia insurgents, Within Pakistan there is substantial support within the population, particularly among the Pashtun tribe bordering Afghanistan. A particularly worrisome possibility is that Pakistan may be the next state to offer a haven to al-Qaeda and its like-minded Islamic extremists. The assault on the Red Mosque in Islamabad by the Pakistani Army on 10 July 2007 may lead to a major battle against the militant Islamists which may clarify the situation.

Because al-Qaeda has been deprived of a firm territorial space from which to plan and launch its attacks, it has resorted to cyberspace. The number of active radical Islamist websites has been estimated to have grown from under 100 in 1996 to over 5,000 today. This electronic network links Muslims world-wide, reinforcing the global consciousness of the "ummah" or Islamic nation, even among those who are citizens of Western countries. The resulting mindset among some Muslims in the UK, for example, has led them to label as "traitors" British Muslims who joined the British Army, and to threaten them with beheading, the Koranic punishment for "apostasy". However, it may still be the case that the most likely agents of bomb attacks are immigrant Muslims holding radical beliefs, such as those members of the UK medical service accused in the recent failed car bombings in central London and the Glasgow airport.

More insidious is "stealth jihad" which is explained in a recent article, "US Sleeps While Society, Values Get Undermined By Stealth Jihad", published in the online version of the "Evening Bulletin", a Philadelphia, PA, newspaper. It draws a distinction between "explosive jihad" and "stealth jihad". The latter term refers to efforts to have sharia law become embedded in the American legal system, by influencing the decisions of judges hearing cases which involve Muslims. The approach is well advanced in Europe, especially in the Netherlands and England. The views of the American based Revolution Muslim are summarized here.

That there is a latent threat from radicalized Muslims in Canada seems evident from a recent CBC documentary aired on The National entitled "Who Speaks for Islam?" which focused on two Muslim organizations with differing views, the Canadian Islamic Congress (CIC) and the Muslim Congress of Canada (MCC). While the MCC seems to be quite outspoken in its condemnation of Islamic extremists and their interpretation of Islamic theology (the Koran), the CIC appears to be reluctant to adopt such an unequivocal stance, but instead accuses the MCC of "Islam-bashing". Further, the CIC favours a role for Sharia law in Ontario in family matters involving Muslims, while the MCC opposes it. It gets worse, as MCC members have been attacked and beaten, and a former executive member, Tarek Fatah, felt it prudent to resign after receiving threats to his life. To date there is no report of the identification and arrest of those responsible. One is left to wonder whether the CIC condones such crimes and, if so, is it because they are consistent with its interpretation of Koranic scripture? While the CBC video is not currently available online, an article entitled "Islam's angry women" also exemplifies the lack of unity among Muslims on interpretations of Islam.

In spite of the above evidence of a significant threat from Islamic extremists, there is a growing demand that our forces be withdrawn from Afghanistan. What are some of the possible implications of such a move?

If NATO, including Canada, withdraws from Afghanistan before the Afghan government and its military and police forces can contain and eliminate the Taliban, we may be called upon again to intercede to prevent a social and humanitarian disaster. A general retreat by the West from the Middle East may encourage the extremists, provide them with solid bases in which to train and from which to launch attacks against the West. Such a development will also encourage those Muslims in the West who have been radicalized to expand their operations. Those Islamic zealots who aspire to the establishment of a new Caliphate extending from Morocco to the Philippines may rapidly move to fill the vacuum left by the retreating West.

Such a "domino effect" may only be realistic, however, if there is substantial support for the radical Islamic views of the extremists. It seems clear that a majority of Muslims do not support such views but, without strong support from their peers and the general non-Muslim population (in Western countries), are understandably reluctant to expose themselves to retribution. It has been argued that it is unrealistic to consider that the imposition of a new Caliphate is even reasonable, given the minority position of al-Qaeda in countries of the Middle East. It has been noted that the Taliban only came to power in Afghanistan after that country was exhausted by fighting the Soviet Union.

Furthermore, once our forces withdraw, extremists will no longer be able to claim that they are fighting a foreign occupying force, and hence support for their views may decline. Indeed, recent trends in the western Iraqi province of Anbar indicate a growing dissatisfaction with the actions of al-Qaeda in Iraq in employing suicide bombers, many of whom are not Iraqis, to inflict casualties among many innocent Iraqi civilians, often Sunni. The departure of NATO forces may result in a refocusing, not only among Iraqis, but in the Middle East generally, upon the destructive interpretation of the Koran championed by al-Qaeda. There are certainly elements in Iran who are agitating for greater freedom of expression in that modern country and, officially, that country has not been keen to align itself with al-Qaeda. That may be because, as one report notes, "Iran's Shiite Muslims are considered infidels by the Salafi (cf. Wahhabi) sect of Sunnis that comprise Al Qaeda (sic)".It should be borne in mind, however, that the Kenyan and Tanzanian bombings of US embassies, the USS Cole attack, the Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia and, of course, the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Towers and the Pentagon were not responses to an occupying force (except, as noted earlier, US Forces were present in Saudi Arabia after the Kuwait war). Indeed, they may have been inspired by a belief that the US lacked the courage and decisiveness to respond with devastating military force. (As an aside, it should be recalled that some argue that those who planned the twin towers attacks were explicitly hoping to draw the US into the Middle East to confront their forces directly, and to make it appear as a "war against Islam".) Even in the event of a planned withdrawal there should no longer be any doubt about the willingness of the US and its allies to act forcefully if threatened again, and armed, next time, by valuable lessons learned.

Note: This blog has not yet addressed issues raised by the massive immigration of Muslims into Europe and North America since the end of World War II. Such issues have been raised in books by Bat Ye'or, "Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis" and by Christopher Caldwell, "Reflections on the Revolution in Europe".


Contrary to the official view that the attack on the World Trade Center towers marked a turning point in the war against the West by Islamists (i.e. those espousing a radical (fundamental) interpretation of Islam), there has been a mass distribution among Muslims of a warning entitled "Warning of a Global War On Islam". The signatories are an American and a Canadian. The "warning" concludes by urging the following:

We were promised that the “war on terror” would be a very long one. Do you think this will all blow away? If so, you’re sadly mistaken. For example, 28 million copies of a DVD outlining Muslim plans for world conquest have been sent to American homes — often enclosed in newspapers and magazines. Rumors persist of large-scale detention facilities currently under construction by Haliburton Inc with a capacity of about three million persons. Given the nature of this war on Islam, you have no choice but be involved.

You have been warned by knowledgeable and sincere Muslim brothers. You really have no choice.

To be continued as time permits ...

NATO, WMD and Terrorism

I attended an interesting lecture today by E.C. Whiteside, Head, NATO Weapons of Mass Destruction Centre. His theme was NATO's role in combatting the proliferation of WMD, especially to terrorists. He stressed NATO's growing expertise in collective security especially in situations involving non-state aligned groups, such as Al-Qaeda. As evidence of the recognition of such expertise, he noted the recent visits to Brussels of the President of Pakistan and the Prime Minister of Japan. NATO also is playing a role in Iraq by providing mentoring and training of its security forces.

He reviewed the growth and decline in the numbers worldwide of nuclear weapons, but noted that as other nations acquire such weapons their numbers may again begin to rise. Facilitating such a development is the ease of access to technical information over the Internet and the enhanced opportunities for collaboration.

If the 20th century witnessed the triumph of physics in achieving the hydrogen bomb, then the 21st century may see a similar rise to dominance of biotechnology. A key feature of this new technology, which makes detection especially difficult, is the small-scale of the laboratories in which research and development can take place.

One aspect of WMD which was not addressed was the vulnerability of the target. During WWII targets acquired some measure of invulnerability by "hardening" (increasing the physical ability to withstand blast), being placed underground or inside mountains and by spatial dispersion and duplication, especially of factories producing war matériel. The problem with chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear weapons (CBRN) of mass destruction is that, as essentially area weapons, the scale of spatial dispersion may be so vast, as to be totally impracticable. However, following the dictum of Herman Kahn, there may come a time when "thinking the unthinkable" may be simply the prudent thing to do! In any event advances in science and technology, motivated by the need to combat this new threat to our collective security, may enable countermeasures, such as laser and particle beam weapons, which may alter the whole context of WMD.

Tipping Points and Mass Collaboration

The idea of a tipping point is captured in the common expression "The straw that broke the camel's back" and in the observation from chaos theory that movement of a butterfly's wings in China may precipitate a tornado in Kansas. In the context of Iraq and Afghanistan there may be several potential tipping points. These may be three of them:

• American/Canadian public opinion reaches such a level that governments are forced to implement a withdrawal of forces from Iraq/Afghanistan.
  
• Iraqi/Afghanistani public opinion becomes so fed up with continued insurgent attacks against civilians that they en masse actively support coalition forces with intelligence and enlistment in their national armed forces.
  
• Large scale deployment of UAVs enables continuous surveillance of the movements of insurgent forces, particularly in those areas of Baghdad and other key cities that coalition forces are committed to clear and hold, thus facilitating their encirclement, preventing their escape in the face of the advancing troops and resulting in a major change of direction of the war.
  

The last one particularly interests me in the light of President Bush's new tactics in Iraq. An infusion of 21,500 more troops is aimed at clearing and holding territory in which insurgents are active. The idea is not simply to expel the insurgents and withdraw, but to expel and stay (though probably with a reduced number of troops), and move on to the next objective. Obviously this new approach will require more troops. If a few UAVs over Fallujah can detect localized movement patterns of militants, then masses of UAVs may enable the tracing of movement patterns on a regional scale. The intelligence derived from a large number of UAVs will require sophisticated software for integration and analysis. It is in this context that the mass collaboration of knowledgeable scientists (especially geographers and other spatial analysts) and soldiers (and others) may play a role. A model that the military may find useful to emulate is InnoCentive. InnoCentive® is an exciting web-based community matching seekers with problems to solvers with solutions. Of course, in the context of ongoing warfare there are key issues of timeliness and security. However it is accomplished there is a need to level the playing field. Our forces operate pretty much in a fish bowl while our opponents are virtually indistinguishable from the civilian population, and choose their targets with impunity. Infiltration of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) by the British was probably a key factor leading to the IRA's acceptance of a ceasefire and the destruction of its weapons. It is extremely difficult, for cultural reasons (though not impossible), to infiltrate the insurgent network and thus our best bet may be to observe behaviour, in full awareness that such behaviour may be intended to mislead us!

Six Steps to Victory and "Mass Collaboration"

Message from Eric Egland, author of Six Steps to Victory:

Hey Team Blackfive,

Here is an update on "Six Steps to Victory--A Bottom Up Solution in Iraq:"

Feedback has been incredible. Blogs and e-mail forwarding have yielded hundreds of responses in the last few days from troops on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan, active duty generals, Vietnam vets, civilian experts, and concerned citizens.

Thanks to sites like Blackfive, this has the makings of an internet-enabled prairie fire. The grass roots wisdom of the American people is awesome, and it is exciting to use the internet to tap into the collective insights out there, which are leading to action and informing the manuscript I am finishing for publication in the spring.

Hey, do you know anyone who is just about to deploy, or has just arrived in Iraq, preferably in a line infantry, ground-owner type unit? Goal is to implement Step 3--connect the American (and Canadian (Editor)) people to the effort by giving them the chance to directly support the guys on the ground.

I am trying to line up a few battalions who would want to get sponsored by a city here and use the WalMart 'wedding registry' to order what they need-- video games, dvd's and books for themselves; cell phone cameras, laptops and video cameras to give to supportive locals for help with spotting bad guys; and dolls, bicycles, microwaves and generators to strengthen relations with the locals.

I have the list of deploying units, but prefer to go grass roots so I don't have to put up with some brigade XO tell me to send a white paper and powerpoint brief--only to never hear back from him.

Let me know if you or your readers can connect me with someone from a combat battalion either in country or about to deploy in the next few months. I can explain that all they would need to do is go to WalMart.com and sign up for a gift registry account, tell their buddies in the unit, send me the account information and I will take it from there.

Once they start getting stuff, they can take pictures and e-mail them back here so the folks supporting them can get the feedback to see that their efforts are really making a difference. I have mayors, CEOs, nonprofit presidents, church leaders, Rotary clubs, political groups and other local leaders from Alaska to Florida chomping at the bit to help out. People here really want to help but don't know how--beyond prayers, bumper stickers and care packages.

This quotation ties in with an earlier post commenting on the original paper Six Steps to Victory. It, however, looks at the larger picture, the Armed Forces and their supporters. If people are prepared to financially support the troops directly to ensure they get the equipment they need, then is it such a big leap to imagine that those who are in a position to do so, may also directly contribute to the design of better equipment and tactics? The analogy is with the changing process of manufacturing, e.g. motorcycles in China and Boeing in the United States, where mass collaboration may become the norm.

Apple introduces its new iPhone (available in June 2007)

At its MacWorld convention Apple has just introduced its new iPhone, which is the integration of the iPod video, a vastly improved mobile phone, and an Internet communicator based on the Safari browser. The integration is based upon the Macintosh Operating System X. One may move seamlessly from one mode or environment to another by simply touching icons on the screen, which takes up virtually the full face of the device. There is no keypad, but if there's a need to use one (for example, for text messaging) then touch an icon and up comes a virtual keypad on the screen.

You'll want to watch Steve Jobs's impressive demonstration of the iPhone in Quicktime. Steve says it'll be shipping in the US in June 2007. Since Apple is partnering with the mobile phone company, Cingular, I do wonder when the iPhone might come to Canada.

This device is bound to increase the opportunities for mass communication. Leveraging such opportunities will be Apple's other new partners, Google and Yahoo. It will be interesting to see how this new technology may be adapted to networked warfare. It may well enhance the current opportunities for "reachback", as exemplified in the following quotation:

"Under SHAPE, the Joint Force Command Brunssum in the Netherlands is responsible for staffing, deploying and sustaining the mission. The Command in Brunssum is the operational-level headquarters between ISAF headquarters in Kabul and the strategic command at SHAPE. Through this “reach-back” capability, the ISAF Commander in Afghanistan is able to draw on a vast pool of staff expertise and specialised assets in areas such as strategic planning, without having to deploy them to Afghanistan." Source: Briefing: Afghanistan.

Such reachback to staff expertise is clearly expandable to include out-sourcing to any individual or group who can provide valuable information. And, while the quotation specifically refers to "the ISAF Commander in Afghanistan", any soldier with due regard to security issues may avail him/herself of reachback opportunities under appropriate circumstances.

DARPA Urban Challenge - autonomous vehicle research and development program

"The DARPA Urban Challenge is an autonomous vehicle research and development program with the goal of developing technology that will keep warfighters off the battlefield and out of harm’s way. The Urban Challenge features autonomous ground vehicles maneuvering in a mock city environment, executing simulated military supply missions while merging into moving traffic, navigating traffic circles, negotiating busy intersections, and avoiding obstacles."

Here we have another instance of "mass collaboration" wherein appropriately qualified and interested individuals may apply or be invited to take up the challenge to develop new technology, or to solve a social or military problem.

"The Urban Challenge teams come from across the United States and around the world, and share a passion for the advancement of robotic technology and machine intelligence. This diverse group includes teams from both academia and the robotics, automotive, and defense industries. Some teams are affiliated with organizations, others are groups of volunteers who have come together specifically for the challenge. Each is working to develop a vehicle to complete the 60-mile urban course in less than six hours." Source: The DARPA Urban Challenge

Such autonomous ground vehicles could provide an alternative to air drops (see below or in archives) in reducing casualties on road convoys attacked by IEDs.

Allow local commanders to buy what they need

"Allow local commanders to buy what they need and nationalize the war effort by connecting the American public with the troops and their mission.

"The troops need more support, from both the military and the American people, and the ground commanders must be empowered to lead our national effort to support them. The localized insurgency, coupled with an adaptive, resilient enemy means the troops on the ground best understand how to win. Our support should fulfill their stated needs, not what Congress, the Pentagon--or even the generals in Baghdad--think they ought to need.

"We need to expand "commander discretionary funds" to give each battalion commander a large budget, on the order of $3 million, to spend as they see fit both before they deploy and while in country, with appropriate accountability. This would allow commanders to take action that will help the mission, but which bureaucratic practices currently prevent. For example, they could buy video cameras and phones to give to locals so that they can film and report insurgent activity; or hire military-aged males to clean roads and dig trenches that improve security while providing jobs to men who would otherwise be recruited as insurgents. It would also allow ground forces to reward a neighborhood chief with a few electric generators for his support of our mission, or to hand a $20 bill to a local who identifies a bomb that could have killed several soldiers." Source: Six Steps to Victory

I would see this suggestion as another example of "mass collaboration" insofar as it encourages the involvement of people actually on the ground. Further, it involves not only those directly involved in the operation (the commanders and troops) but also those civilians in the area who are capable of offering assistance. The suggestion above concerning the American people (which could be expanded the include Canadian, British and other coalition nationalities) clearly is another example of "mass collaboration".

Why Outsourcing Military Operations is Bunk

"The policy to outsource tasks traditionally done by the uniformed military has been going on for at least 20 years. It is based on the ideological belief that the theoretical efficiency of market capitalism can be transferred to the military. This is bunk." Source: Why Outsourcing Military Operations is Bunk

.

The context of the previous post on "mass collaboration" is that of a market or private enterprise economy. However we should probably distinguish between outsourcing actual operations in the field and outsourcing the search for ideas concerning the conduct of such operations and the technologies to be employed in those operations. It has been observed that those who are "outside the box" are not constrained by often unconscious preconceptions. One ongoing source of such ideas is the unofficial army forums where both currently serving (and retired) personnel and interested civilians may post their thoughts on military matters.

The Open-Source War

If "mass collaboration" is a form of networked war then another is "open-source war":

"the insurgency isn't a fragile hierarchical organization but rather a resilient network made up of small, autonomous groups. This means that the insurgency is virtually immune to attrition and decapitation. It will combine and recombine to form a viable network despite high rates of attrition.

"There are signs that the insurgency's goal is shifting from a withdrawal of the United States military to the collapse of the Iraqi government. So, even if American troops withdraw now, violence will probably continue to escalate.

"What's left? It's possible, as Microsoft has found, that there is no good monopolistic solution to a mature open-source effort. In that case, the United States might be better off adopting I.B.M.'s embrace of open source. This solution would require renouncing the state's monopoly on violence by using Shiite and Kurdish militias as a counterinsurgency. This is similar to the strategy used to halt the insurgencies in El Salvador in the 1980's and Colombia in the 1990's. In those cases, these militias used local knowledge, unconstrained tactics and high levels of motivation to defeat insurgents (this is in contrast to the ineffectiveness of Iraq's paycheck military). This option will probably work in Iraq too.

"In fact, it appears the American military is embracing it. In recent campaigns in Sunni areas, hastily uniformed peshmerga and Badr militia supplemented American troops; and in Basra, Shiite militias are the de facto military power." Source: The Open-Source War

.

Is "mass collaboration" the way to a new model of warfare?

I've been reading the new book by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams entitled "Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything". Here is a brief extract from their online sample chapter:

“Call them the “weapons of mass collaboration.” New low-cost collaborative infrastructures—from free Internet telephony to open-source software to global outsourcing platforms—allow thousands upon thousands of individuals and small producers to cocreate products, access markets, and delight customers in ways that only large corporations could manage in the past. This is giving rise to new collaborative capabilities and business models that will empower the prepared firm and destroy those that fail to adjust.” Source: Sample chapter.

Can the “weapons of mass collaboration” be adapted to fighting the new “war on terrorism” or perhaps more accurately, the war on those who wish to establish a global Islamic caliphate based upon a fundamentalist form of Islam (i.e. a Taliban-like theocracy)? In this way may evolve a bottom-up strategy to combat non-state-based foes. This may be the appropriate adaptation to Web 2.0 pioneered by such sites as MySpace.com and YouTube.com. This may be the best way to involve the Muslim population whose input may be critical to ensuring an inclusive approach. The present UN, NATO and other ultimately state-based conventional warfare models seem only to exacerbate the situation by fomenting internecine warfare as is occurring in Iraq.