Technology making battlefield safer or more dangerous?

Gun-Toting Robots May Fight Alongside Soldiers in Future Battles

There is new technology being developed that will one day allow for robots to accompany soldiers in war. According to the weapons manufacturer, Northrop Grumman, the robots will be able to carry equipment, fire weapons such as an M240 machine gun, spot an enemy up to 2 miles away and run for 20 hours on 3.5 gallons of fuel. The future has arrived. No longer will soldiers be put in harms way or have to carry their own equipment, they will have machines to do it for them. This is an obvious first reaction to impressive new technology such as this, but does it hide a deeper truth?

                                                                          When new technology comes out, people are often blinded by it's impressive capabilities and the ways in which it will make life easier. Often it does make life easier, but there is a price to pay. The iPhone allowed us to have the capabilities of a computer almost anywhere in the world at anytime. Yet we now see a new generation of people who are becoming more obsessed with cyber space than actual reality (See Video). The point isn't that technology is a bad thing. Without progress, the only option is regression. The point is that technology can often open up a pandora's box of problems that it had originally sought to fix.

The caMEL robot technology that could soon be seen in battle should be able save soldiers lives at first. The other side to this is that soon robots will be a main theme on the battlefield and the only thing more deadly than humans is machines. They are tools that take what humans hold in their imagination and allow it to become a reality. Once it is developed, it would be naive to think that America will be the only country with this form of weaponry. It is like throwing more gasoline on the fire and expecting it to put out the flame. The problem will compound until it becomes a bigger problem. Soldiers could start losing their lives to a mechanized gun sitting 4 miles away from where they stand. It is a deadly cycle of events that in the end only has more people being killed. That doesn't appear to be a concern for the developer of a technology such as this. As a matter of fact that seems to be the overall goal.

Jobs After Combat

Military personnel are some of the most highly skilled and well trained people in the country. They know how to survive for days with limited supplies, how to protect a base from enemy attack and how to adapt to a culture that is not their own. They are disciplined people who could die any day fighting for their country. Then it is all over. They are no longer needed in the military and they come home to a life that they have not known in some time. What's the next option? Getting a job. For most people this has been a work in progress for a few years. Building resumes and making contacts that will hopefully lead to a job once you have graduated from college. This is not the life of a returning soldier. According to Sophie Quinton in her article Why Are Companies Reluctant to Hire Military Veterans, "In 2012, nearly 10 percent of veterans of Iraq or Afghanistan were unemployed, compared with 7.9 percent of the general population." Military veterans are having a hard time finding jobs upon returning from combat because they don't have anything relevant to put on their resumes. That is not to say that they are not very skilled, but it is hard to get a job with a real estate company when your best skill is armed combat. Many employers find it difficult to offer a job to someone who doesn't meet the qualifications. It is the same idea when a job application requirement is 5 years of experience in the given field. How do you get the experience if no one will hire you? I believe that in this situation, with military people coming home from combat, it has to be deeper then what someone can put on a piece of paper. Employers need to realize that these people may not have the experience that will get them a job but they have the discipline to learn. If anyone deserves a chance at a job it should be them.