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Monday, April 26, 2004 |
 Roger Trinquier, author of the 1961 military classic "Modern Warfare: A French view of Counter-Insurgency" wrote: A conventional military's effort to quell an insurgency "reminds one of a pile driver attempting to crush a fly, indefatigably persisting in repeating its efforts."
2:55:16 PM 
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There seems to be a big opportunity to build an online marketplace/coordination mechanism for private military forces in Iraq. They currently suffer from a significant amount of chaos that could and should be alleviated. It could be built inexpensively using best of breed techniques learned over the last decade building sites for the Web. Here is what they need:
- A marketplace for operational intelligence information. The forces on the ground have been developing their own intelligence sources. They should have an easy way to share it (since mutual protection keeps everyone safe). A weblog powered system would allow easy posting. There also may be a way to allow these deployed forces to make some money for their effort. A simple marketplace mechanism (with a reputation metric) would incentivize further activities.
- A system for requesting mutual aide from other PMCs and the US military. This system would also include ongoing sit-reps from hot zones. Instant messaging and conflict zone specific multi-author weblogs would help here. Synthetic RSS feeds that combine multiple zone weblogs would keep a PMC manager in direct touch with what is going on.
- A secure tracking mechanism for PMC employees in country. This could either be simple or complex. On the complex side there is lots that can be done with real-time transfer of GPS coordinates (Iridium could help here -- the phones cost less than a days pay for most PMCers and I am fairly sure they include GPS). This system would make search, rescue, and recovery much easier.
Many more ideas on this....
12:58:32 PM
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Global Guerrillas is the feed of the day over at Feedster. Very cool. I like Feedster and some recognition for the work on the site feels good.
12:27:09 PM
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Can every airline please buy a 7E7. Look at these cabins.
10:15:04 AM
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Meaning Master sounds interesting. A while ago, I worked with a company that had a similar approach using academic reference materials. It would rework a Google return based on the body of knowledge you were interested in. For example: medical, etc. The results were quite good. Still need something like this today.
9:53:59 AM
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WSJ. Google picks CSFB and Morgan Stanley as its bankers. Google has all the hallmarks of a bubble stock. They don't have any of the switching costs that have enabled the Internet success stories to thrive despite a down market. Additionally, Microsoft and Yahoo won't let them win. It's all about marketshare like browsers.
7:26:10 AM
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NYT. Friedman rues the loss of American prestige in the Middle East. Its amazing that he doesn't recognize his part in the process that lost it.
6:54:33 AM
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© Copyright 2004 John Robb.
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