Why Dams and River Projects Are Administered by the USACE - Essay Example

College Introduction The use of integrated core capabilities of network operations, electronic warfare, military deception, operation security and psychological operations as a result gaining some support and capabilities in human related decision making in order to protect our own is known as information operation or IO. Information is a very vital asset for a country. A country highly depends on information in many ways and the operation of the army also depends with proper management of information. If information is not protected then a country risks attacks from its enemies and the loss of its properties as a result of information leaking away. The US having a lot of enemies and allies, needs information operation in order to be a head of its enemies inters of information. This means that the US and its allies always have an advantage of any information issue over their enemies. Maintain superiority in the information sector is therefore the main goal that IO aims at achieving. The environment of the information is also vital for the success of IO. It is considered to be the combination of the organizations, the individuals, and the systems that are collectively involved in the collection, processing, dissemination and acting on the information. It is therefore divided into three parts. The informational, the physical and the cognitive. With the use of the five core capabilities of IO, the US is able to influence many aspects off the information industry in order to protect their own information. IO has three major military functions. This is the public affairs, defense support to public diplomacy as well as military civil operations. However IO does not do anything to compromise the purpose of these capabilities. However they always work together in order to achieve the desired goals that are set. Full spectrum operation is now growing in the US army. This all began in 2001 when the government began to feel that the US army should be able to go into any country and act on any deployment whether the country has any peace or it is a war torn nation. It is for this reason that the army needs a lot of support indoor to gain advantage of the peoples support. Infrastructure and construction is major part in the engineering department of the army corps. They build bridges and dams that the army uses to train as well as any architectural design that is spoilt by the army in any of its mission. USAGE is a MACOM army. This is a major command army that is given assignments that involves the execution, of all military construction and civil engineering issues. The use of USACE dates back to the period after the Second World War around 1947 when the US army moved in to help support the infrastructure of many parts of Europe that had undergone destruction during the Second World War. It was also aimed to put away communism in most of the European nations. The US aid was loitering sent to parts of Greece and Turkey so as to help in its rebuilding. The main reason behind the sponsorship of this project was to collect a lot of information from the Greece people and to help fight communism. As already discussed, the US will do anything so as to get superior control of any information that will be of benefit to its growth and which is also important to its military success. Created under the department of defense, the USACE is a branch of the army that is made up of both skilled and unskilled engineers that work to support the construction of civil structures that are beneficial to the people. Up to now, this department accounted to round 24% of the total electricity that the US use each year. There are also some outdoor activities that they provide to the people thereby making them one of the most liked departments of the army in terms of public opinions. There are a lot of missions that are associated with the department. One of the main missions is to give engineering services to the general public. This is to be done in both peaceful areas and areas that experience civil wars so as to give strength to the security of the nation, it is also done to reduce any risk from disasters that have been experienced in the past, as well as to give the economy a major economic boost. The main reason that remains unanswered here is what the government gets from funding such heavy projects (Fine, 1972). The USACE is therefore a group of army engineers that are set to help the people while at the same time getting the US ahead of public support. When the U has any advantage over its information control, then it is able to be ahead of its enemies and also support its allies to work better. Building of bridges and dams and all forms of military engineering support that the US army does is done so as to gain advantage of the public opinions and to help the US army be ahead of its enemies in terms of information control. This is therefore a specific strategy that the government finds to have access of information while at the same time giving back to the public through civil engineering support. How does IO enhance other defense operations? Defiance operations do not only involve the success of a war rather it involves the economic boost that the government gets from its military operations. IO can enhance a lot of other military operations. First with proper managed IO, the government is able to control and protect other states from any military attacks that are prepared by either military from enemy states or that which are done from terrorists. So getting superior control of any information is very useful for the army in order to control all the defenses that the nation has. This is done by giving the enemy no advantage over our information that they can use to set an attack and at the same time getting to know much of their security information that can be used to launch any attack incase such a need arise. IO is also very vital in the provision of intelligence that the military needs in order to be prepared for any attack so as to set in any defenses needed in case of an attack. The first mission of the US army is to protect the US citizens with all they have. It is for this case that getting information superiority from other states and enemy states of the US gives it more powers to protect its citizens more. The intelligence is also useful in launching an attack on the enemy in case there is need for such actions. Intelligence is also needed to gain public support. With enough information, the government can know the right button to press in order to please the people and let them support most of the US actions in their lands. Civil engineering is also a major military operation that is needed by the US military in order to build greater architectural designs that are used for the training of military personnel. Roads and other constructions such as dams and canals are also useful in order to boost economic advancement of the nation and to find public support of the people. IO is very vital in getting to know the public wants. The government does not just walk into an area a build any structures without first considering the reactions of the people towards the construction. It is for this reason that the military needs to gather a lot of both statistical information and logic information to be able to know the right kind of structures to set as well as the specific areas to put the structures and take part in military training (Dondelinger, 2010). Information operation is also useful for the military to identify the enemy states as well as the ally states. The military does not just pick enemies from the map rather with careful study of the information available, it is able to know the states that pose as a threat to national security and the ones that pose as allies. With this they learn to act on the various ways that they can protect the nation from any attack from the enemy state. For example during the Russian war in Afghanistan, the US secretly funded the Russian enemies due to the intelligence that was provided by the study of the information of how the Russian soldiers were wounded by the Afghanistan soldiers. Development and use of information operation War can be lost and a major advantage gained by the proper use and management of information. Being ahead of the enemy in terms of information is a vital factor in any war that a nation fights. During any fight, the fight for the trust of the civilian people is very useful for any war to succeed since the civilian can provide a lot of support. Combating the misinformation of the enemy to our advantage is the main goal of information operation. This can be used to gain civilian trust and at the same time spread propaganda to tarnish the name of the enemy. An example is the way that the US has had to build public support among the people of Afghanistan after the destruction of the Taliban. With the Taliban gone, the US finally came in to provide better hope for this war torn nation by building schools and improving their rights. This made the people to hate the Taliban so much such that they dint miss their return. What happens here is that the military secretly provided the public with what they lacked from the Taliban and as a result it led to the success of the mission in Afghanistan (Neilsen, 2000). The location for the operation to take place is also a major concern to be looked into. For success, the operation has to be done in a secret place without the knowledge of the enemy. No a slight thing should be known by the enemy regarding the operation and it has to come to them as a shock. It is for this that the operation should be done some distance away from the enemy so that they do not suspect anything fishy to be taking place around them. Its use should also be secret as it can endanger the lives of those who aided its release. The panel has to also consider the person who they are using to do the operation as some people may not have a good intention and in the end use what they know to inform the enemy of what is taking place. This would be very dangerous for the operation and should be avoided. Infect the fewer the people who know about the operation is better. Development of a proper information operation is very important for the success of the IO. The first consideration to be made is the target information. We have to know the information that we are targeting, its importance to the defense department and how much is needed to have it. This is important in setting out the budget for the operation as well as getting to know the public well. During this time, every aspect of the information is noted down to enable with its operation. The next thing is to calculate if there is any need for the use of the information and how important it is to the defense department. There is some information that is not worth the risk and there is no need in trying to go after them. The value of the information is therefore very important in determining the success of the information ( Fitzsimmons, 2008). Going after the information is the major problem and in most cases does not involve direct military contact rather behind the back activities such as bribing the involved persons as well as the use of activities that are not legal. This is so as to get access of the information. The information can also be accessed by hacking the given network through the use of super computers or the use of experienced personnel to get access of the information. Once the information is found, then it is to be handed to the correct personnel for use. The use of information operation is a major task of the personnel concerned. The information should not be used to rob another country or to blackmail its leadership into what they don’t wish to do. However the information can be used to gain public confidence as well as help the army get ahead of its enemies in terms of defenses. The Corps of engineers are a very good department in the use of information with great care. From the weakness that the government has learned from the failures of the enemy government on its people, the military is able to come in and set out centers, build architectural designs and other basic needs that the people want. With this, public support is guaranteed and the people can sometimes support the involvement of the military in their own land. The information operation can also be used to spread negative messages about the enemy and also to divide the enemy so that they are not united. When this is done, then the defense has an advantage over the enemy as they are able to divide them and use this kind of information to create a rift amongst them. However this should not be done on ally states and neutral states as it can lead to civil war. Public interest has to be considered too and put at the top of the list to ensure that the public does not suffer from the action of the army. Corps of engineers are very useful for the fulfillment of the mission and objectives of information operation. With their designs, they are able to build structures that can be used to train the soldiers against the enemy as well as use the people to fight themselves in support for the US who provide all the funds so as to gain public support. The construction also helps improve the living standards of the people and this will lead to their support of the US action. Corps of engineers are therefore a very important department in the success of any information operation. For the mission to be fully successful, then the involvement of both skilled and unskilled personnel is very important. Once the skilled personnel has been involved, they axre able to hack into the network as well as the system of the enemy thereby breaching their security and taking out all the needed data and information that they want. The unskilled personnel are also important in providing the labour that is needed in the construction. However to create employment for the local people to whom they are trying o gain the public confidence, t he USACE needs to employ the local people for the provision of unskilled labour as well as skilled labour that does not involve any serious secret. This is because their use in such actions can compromise its success as they might inform others of the motive behind the constructions. Conclusion Information is a very vital tool in the fight of an enemy. Getting control of every little information that one can get about the enemy is very important. There are various ways that the US does this so as to always be superior to its enemies in terms of information and matters pertaining to security. It is for this reason that information operation is important to the success of many wars. Inorder to fight the enemy, sometimes it is clever to use its people to fight the war for you. This is what the department of the corps of engineers does. By building civil structures that improve the quality of life for the local citizens, the people in tern give back by giving out all their loyalty to the US and its allies. It therefore makes winning the war easier as compared to fighting it alone using guns. This is one of the secret wars fought and the mosr successful. Reference Fitzsimmons, J. A., & Fitzsimmons, M. J. (2008). Service management: Operations, strategy, information technology. Boston: McGraw-Hill/Irwin. Nielsen, M. A., & Chuang, I. L. (2000). Quantum computation and quantum information. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Dondelinger, R. M. (January 01, 2010). Radio frequency identification. Biomedical Instrumentation & Technology / Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation, 44, 1.) Fine, L., & Remington, J. A. (1972). The Corps of Engineers: Construction in the United States. Washington: Office of the Chief of Military History, U.S. Army; [for sale by the Supt. of Docs., U.S. Govt. Print. Off.. Read More