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December 23, 2006

Unwanted Answers

Topics: Iraq

Sometime in the next few weeks we will be treated to the Bush administrations "new deal" for Iraq. Considering the political constraints they are operating under we won't be surprised if it looks a lot like the same old deal. To paraphrase a Chinese proverb "If you try to please everyone you end up pleasing no one."

The thing that has been haunting my mind is why a number of solutions haven't apparently even been considered. Take for example a common and inexpensive technology: the webcam.

Webcams have been dotting the American landscape for over a decade now. They can be purchased for next to nothing and are supported by a host of software and hardware developments. At its heart a webcam is really only a few dollars worth of parts and a plastic shell.

With a little effort it would take a small company only a short time to integrate a host of intellectual properties to provide a robust and effective monitoring system to all of Iraq. Look at the typical cellphone today, possessing as it does camera, gps and dozens of other functions. Strip away the keypad, lcd screen and lighting; replace them with a mesh network transponder system and perhaps a MEMS motion/vibration detection chip. This energy efficient device could be packaged in a rugged inexpensive plastic shell injection molded to look like a rock, brick, tile or what-have-you.

Upon mass production it would cost only tens of dollars. For the price of a couple of humvees and a tank these things could be scattered out the backs of trucks, dropped from airplanes or emplaced by hand to literally blanket roadways, city regions or any place that needed it with video monitoring. The mesh network would feed video back to a central station or up to satellites via spread-spectrum broadcasting. With motion activation software built in, inactive sites could powerdown and use their resources to help pass signal.

Immediately I can hear the alarmist clamor of "BIG BROTHER" but I remind you these devices would be battery powered and would fail after some months or years at most. But a year of being able to trace a car bomber back to his hideout or detect a terrorist hiding an IED along a planned route would be all that was needed.

My suggestion is only one example; there are undoubtedly dozens of other social, cultural and political solutions. The question is "why haven't they already been done?" It can't be a matter of cost and there's no way you can tell me I'm the only one smart enough to think such things. The logistics and technology are both a decade old already. So who benefits by not stopping the blood shed? The mainstream media, Muslim extremists, the military-industrial complex and left-wing activists and politicians all gain advantage from the spiraling chaos that was once called the birthplace of civilization.

Posted by Guido at December 23, 2006 6:53 PM

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