Here’s Rumsfeld on the changing realities of 21st century warfare:
“Bloggers and hackers and chat rooms!” Rumsfeld exclaimed Saturday during a question-and-answer session with defense and security officials and experts from around the world. “E-mails and cell phones with global reach!”
“It alters how you have to behave… it adds a level of complexity” to warfare in the 21st century.
. . .
“We have to recognize that this global war on terror is the first war in history that’s being conducted in a world dominated by a particular set of new realities,” Rumsfeld said, also listing 24-hour cable television news networks and a US Congress “that’s nearly always in session” as factors that fundamentally alter global security concerns.
“It’s more a matter of culture and attitude than it is of technologies and platforms,” Rumsfeld said.
There’s also the obligatory smear without link or reference (“Rumsfeld’s critics — and they are many, even within his Republican Party in the United States — charge that …”). But this is still the way Old Media is done, even when filtered through new media.
Comments
3 responses to “Bloggers and hackers and chat rooms, oh my!”
I think Rumsfeld is brilliant. I recall one press conference when he was asked if he had lost his “mojo”. Rumsfeld gave an about 15 second analysis of what mojo referred to and said he didn’t think the question was relevant.
The regional NPR affiliate replayed the answer and then scoffed aloud: “Well listen to this if you don’t know what mojo is,” proceeding to play Muddy Waters’ “I Got My Mojo Working”, which only proved Rumsfeld’s analysis was correct.
By that time I was not too surprised by anything. But I was still fairly irritated by the NPR’s arrogant ignorance.
That’s the thing about stupid people – they are too stupid to realize how stupid they really are. Smart people on the other hand know how stupid they are. They’ve don studies that show this phenomena – people that did well on the study’s test consistently underestimated how well they did, whereas the people that did shitty on the test consistently overestimated how well they did.
It reminds me of a press conference where a reporter asked a question (more like made a statement, really) accusing the secretary of ‘cognitive dissonance,’ to which Rumsfeld replied, ‘you carry on as if I don’t know what the term cognitive dissonance means.’ Classic Rummy!
I admire Rumsfeld. They couldn’t stop President Bush from getting re-elected and, now, re-inaugurated, so they’re attacking Rumsfeld, Condi, and all the other people he works with.
By the way, I’m stupid, and you don’t want to know how stupid. But at least I know something about spectrums. I’m just getting started on the final one in this series.