1. Who's Your Baghdaddy?
- Author
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Fox, Pimm
- Subjects
- *
COMPUTER software industry , *INTERNET industry , *MILITARY personnel , *ARMED Forces , *COMPUTER industry - Abstract
The article comments on the need for the IT industry to give an effort to educate and connect the U.S. public with troops in Iraq, in terms of free hardware and software for troops serving overseas as well as for their families. What's needed for starters is a branded effort that would give computers to the families of servicemen and servicewomen who can't afford them. The IT industry could offer free Internet and e-mail access, as well as software to build Web sites, transfer files and share music and photos between families and troops overseas. Nonlethal IT is already heavily used by soldiers in the field to allow them to stay connected to home. MP3 players, e-mail, DVD movie, satellite dishes and laptop computers with Internet access are all in use, and the Armed Forces Network operates a radio feed from Riverside, California, that's beamed into Iraq. The author urges the public to take a look at the photos of the troops in the field. Such pictures help make the war in Iraq seem less remote and otherworldly for people who don't know someone serving overseas. This isn't about politics of views on U.S. foreign policy. This is about young men and women thousands of miles from home who are exposing themselves to possible death, injury and disease. IT industry executives could easily put together a series of promotions offering online discounts to military personnel and their families.
- Published
- 2004