In the light of the differences in the claims to the Spratley Islands and the old claim to Sabah, one wonders what would really happen if we go to war against any other nation.
How will the Philippines fare in an honest to goodness shooting conflict against China, Malaysia or any other country? Will we last longer than Egypt in its war with Israel? Or can we prolong the conflict like Vietnam in its war against the USA and finally win?
Conflicts between nations were initially fought on land. These involved the organization of resources like manpower, equipment, strategies and training and capabilities in order to have strategic advantage and win.
Given the configuration of earth space, the territories of conflict expanded into the seas.
The Roman army with its formidable organization and strategy was able to conquer the known western world.
However, it had to develop its complement of a Roman navy with its warships. These were the playing fields for conflict until the beginning of the twentieth century.
A small island nation like England could conquer and establish “ an empire where the sun never sets” because of being a naval power.
The advent of aviation brought a new dimension into the conduct of war. This was clearly demontrated during WW1 and WW2, where the use of fighter planes and bombers brought the fight into new arenas to provide logistical, information, access, advantage and victory.
These areas are now integrated into the major military services, army, navy and air force. The developments are being pursued in these areas with new technology and strategies.
The major powers also went into science in order to invent many weapons of mass destruction, including the atom bomb and biological weapons. These went beyond the boundaries of conventional warfare where there was usually a winner and a loser, no matter how “Pyrrhic”.
In a nuclear or biological war, all the world loses with everybody worse off than they previously were.
Reagan wanted to raise the capability to wage war from the vantage position of space. By conquering and positioning satellites for communications and weapons in space, it became known as the time of “star wars.”
It is a beneficial historical development that the USSR broke up, the Berlin wall went down and the cold war between the west and the “communist” world ended.
However, there arrived on the scene new players, with different ideologies and cultures, eager to be part of the conflicts.
Some Middle East nations and organizations of a cultish and separate political philosophies have not only engaged in conventional attacks and conflicts but also have sought to acquire the capabilities to utilize weapons of mass destruction.
Likewise, terrorism which doesnot respect civilians and noncombatants has become the new engagement.
There have been other tools and mechanisms which were sought to be developed.
Whether true or not, some war and espionage books, documents and novels alleged that the Germans and Russians ( probably the Americans,too) have tried to develop parapsychological methods such as mind reading, remote viewing, psychokinesis and other such psychological analytical and controlling approaches to be used in the process of conflict.
Today, the world has developed another dimension in which we conduct our lives. This is the “cyberworld.”
We conduct our business, communications, socializing, research, entertainment, and most aspects of our lives in the cyberworld. The information, communications, internet and computers permeate every aspect of our political, economic and social lives.
And like all of these dimensions of our lives, conflict can and has always reared its ugly head to achieve its agenda. Hacktivism is now a frequent activity, And Filipinos are supposed to be very good hackers.
USA Defense Secretary Leon E. Panneta recently warned about the possibility of the USA being “increasingly vulnrerable to foreign computer hackers who could dismantle the nation’s power grid, transportation system, financial networks and goverment’” Hacking may involve denial of service, shutting down of transportation and utilities services, making useless thousands of computers and networks.
Panetta further said, “ the most dangerous possibilities involve cyberactors launching several attacks on our critical infrastructure at one time in combination with a physical attack.”
It is probably time that the Philippines should explore the possibility of organizing a SWAT type of team to have the capability of conducting cyberwar, for both defense and offense.
This is probably the type of conflict where we may have a competitive advantage and level the playing field in conjunction with a complementary conventional military setup and strategy.
