The war Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The war - Essay Example The period between the first gulf war in 1990s and the second in early 2000 has witnessed many changes in the military. The changes include application of more advanced technology and overhaul of tactical approaches, transformations that have achieved mixed results. This paper discusses the benefits and drawbacks of applying United States’ advanced military technology in Iraq and Afghanistan. The war in Afghanistan is one of the major United States military offensives aimed at destroying the terrorists’ hideouts that had inflicted heavy damages on American interest around the globe. Iraq war was launched to overthrow the regime of Saddam Hussein accused by the government of possessing weapons of mass destruction with intention of using them to spread terror. Both wars were executed with highly sophisticated weapons that allowed the United States forces to demolish the enemy defenses with high precision aerial weaponry and at unprecedented rate. The quick demolition and annihilation of strategic enemy areas enabled subsequent entrance of the ground forces into the countries to finish off the remaining resistance (DOD, 2007). According to Anne(2004,p15), the execution of both wars heralded a new era of military tactics, which heavily relied on technologically enhanced devices in carrying out of both aerial and ground combat. This strategy was more precise, faster, and resulted to lower number of military and civilian casualties. DOD (2007) noted that the war strategy in both wars was culmination of coordination high technology military hardware with enhanced communication devices that enabled them to strike with pinpoint precision. The war in Afghanistan witnessed the first application of robots that were used to carry out surveillance, clearance of mines, identification of targets and rescuing soldiers. The robots included Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) that undertook the aforementioned tasks without carrying human operator in them (David, 2005, p2 7). These robots helped in protecting soldiers from enemy attacks. According to David (2005, p 28), advanced technology has produced better robots that are equipped with high precision equipment and artillery to strike detected target. The 2003 war in Iraq saw a combination of precision weapons, exemplary surveillance of the targeted enemy grounds, and swift ground combatants aided by highly advanced communication network that enabled monitoring of distant operations from a remote region (DOD, 2007). Though the application of advanced military technology enabled quicker executions of the mission, the war has dragged on for many years, resulting to heavy economic and human loss. According to DOD (2007), the number of United States troops killed in both Iraq and Afghanistan exceeds those killed in actual combat at the beginning of the war. Anne (2004, p31) notes that threat of improvised explosive devices or roadside bombs continue inflicting damage on American forces. According to DO D (2007), the explosive devices have killed over 2000 American soldiers in Iraq, while more than 21,000 have suffered debilitating injuries that have effectively compromised their physical and psychological performance for life. In Afghanistan, the improvised explosive devices have claimed lives of over 250 American soldiers, with over 1,700 suffering serious injuries (DOD, 2007). Anne (2004, p21) notes that the explosive devices are the highest killer of the Allied forces in both countries and they have greatly undermined the efforts achieved the application of the advanced military technology. However, continuous innovation in the American military has produced mine- resistant ambush –protected all terrain vehicle(M-ATV) that offers better protection from roadside bombs than the heavier mine- resistant- ambush-