AS SEEN ON TV
Connecting People in War
There is now a proposal to prohibit soldiers from bringing cellular phones to combat. Retired Colonel Rex Mirative a former combatant in Basilan reasons that a soldier’s concentration could be compromised if he has access to his family via cell phone. Distressed text messages from family may affect his performance. The Armed Forces of the Philippines will review this proposal.
Fighting a war in this age of connectivity is changing military affairs. Before cell phones, soldiers usually communicated with their loved ones using snail mail, email or land line, during breaks from tour of duty—and not while in action. It also took days (even months during World War 2) for relatives to get updates about their loved one on the field. But now, with cell phones and cell sites common even in places of war, the family gets even a real time account of an ongoing battle, which in some cases, yields to unwelcome breaking news.
When military troops were cornered by the Abu Sayyaf and rogue members of the MILF in Basilan this month, cell phones became the bearers of gruesome news. The wife of one of the soldiers received a text message from the Abu Sayyaf telling her that they have beheaded her husband. The message was sent using the dead soldier’s cell phone.
A similar situation occurred at the peak of negotiations for the release of Fr. Giancarlo Bossi from kidnappers in Zamboanga Sibugay last year. The bandits decapitated 10 soldiers (and cut off the genitals of one of them) and used a dead soldier’s cell phone to harass his pretty wife whose photo and contact details were on the unit.
It is not certain if other than for personal use the cell phone has been utilized in actual military operation although it looks like the device is an efficient means of communication, knowing that the Armed Forces of the Philippines is lacking in equipment such as radio. Cell phones may be a dependable way for soldiers on the field to communicate with their commanders and this is why the AFP is not so keen on banning them totally in combat.
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In Afghanistan and Iraq, cell phones are not necessarily banned but US troops have been encouraged not to use them during an operation. While it is imperative that “all hands are supposed to be on the trigger when in war” mobile phones can send signals that may set off electronically-activated bombs. Cell phone signals can also act as a beacon to a radar-guided enemy missile. In Afghanistan in particular, the Taliban monitors mobile phone conversations and use them to determine the troops’ exact location.
In other conflict torn areas, the cell phone can be handy in psychological warfare. In Gaza strip both Israeli troops and Hezbollah have used cell phones to intimidate each other. Cell phones are also used by terrorist as a detonating device, in the absence of “suicide volunteers”.
All of these are part of a trend toward using new media in a century old conflict.
Yaniv Levyatan, a psychological warfare expert at the University of Haifa said cell phones are a natural tool for soldiers and militants who are generally young and have grown up very familiar with the technology.
Many of these troops have learned to use weapons right about the time they learned to send text messages! It is no surprise that soldiers of this generation may carry firearms in one hand and a cell phone in the other.
If it is any consolation, cell phones have helped both sides minimize casualties during missile attacks. Warnings in the form of text messages spreading fast among targeted communities have helped people run for cover before an impending missile strike. Both the Israeli and Palestinean governments have admitted that cell phones and very recently, social networking sites helped spread messages or warnings to their people.
New media has also helped the public keep track of conflict where and when they happen.
In Kabul, the US military has put Twitter along with Facebook and You Tube into its arsenal of “weapons”. Being the unpopular side of a dragging war, these social networking sites are a way for US and Afghan troops to tell their side of the conflict, and a counter strategy against the Taliban who is already using the internet and text messaging in their own propaganda.
With the growing restrictions on media coverage in war zones, it is now the soldier’s turn to tell their tales to the world using new media. No one else is more credible to tell real war stories than the men and women fighting it.
(Comments are welcome. Pls. e-mail stanley.palisada@gmail.com)