I read somewhere that technology shapes warfare, but doesn’t change war.
In other words, most unfortunately, war will always exist… no matter how idiotic the reasons for it may be. War is a fact of life.
The evolution of technology over the past century has been nothing short of astounding. Perhaps this can be best exemplified through how warfare has changed over this period.
Hang with me here.. I am just spitting out thoughts from my wandering mind. I do not have a degree in political science nor do I have any military experience.
Planes, drones, missiles, computers and GPS have come to the forefront. All of the previously mentioned have drastically changed warfare as we know it. For some old timers, they have even lived through this and experienced the changes with their very old (and wrinkly) eyes.
I think we can all agree that there will never be a war as gruesome as some turned out to be in the past. The bloodshed that is synonymous with the ground combat that took place in the American Civil War and WW1 & WW2 (just to cite a few) is a thing of the past.
Due to technology, we have now entered a new era centered around the threat of nuclear war.
In my opinion, there are a lot of pros and one big con here.
Obviously the big downer is that IF a country were to really launch a big-time nuclear missile, the world would essentially come to an end. Not great.
But there are a lot of positives that come along with this. (Positive Is How I Live)
One obvious positive: the casualties and gruesome experiences of ground combat have come to an end. This is a big-time step in the right direction. Around the world, a much higher percentage of soldiers return home to their families (mental health / PTSD issues aside) unscathed.
And also, I may be overly optimistic here.. but I would bet that in our lifetime we will never see a real nuclear missile fired at a country with the intention to completely destroy it. That would threaten civilization’s very existence. As a result, you would like to think this would hold world powers in check from doing something stupid.
So those are basically my thoughts… obviously, we could delve a lot deeper into this on many, many levels.
And perhaps in the near future I will do just that.
These days, technology is constantly evolving. And that means the art of warfare changes at the snap of a finger.
Who is to say the future of warfare won’t take place in outer space?
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