The Gulf War had the look and feel of a Nintendo game. The bombs had nose cone cameras as they hit bridges, factories and convoys. We came to expect the same level of expertise in Kosovo. We took the technology for granted. We used up our entire supply of air launched cruise missiles and had to buy an inferior and less accurate one from Israel to continue the bombing campaign.
Technology is fragile.
The use of technology from global positioning satellites to high-speed computers to stealth technologies applied to missile, planes and ships places the United States military at the top of the food chain. It also exposes an incredibly soft under belly. For example in 1998, it is estimated over 280,000 cyber attacks took place against military and defense related computer systems. That s roughly 770 attacks each day. Some percentage of those attacks came from people using computers similar to ones sitting on your desktop.