At IEEE Specctrum, John Robb, (Brave New War: The Next Stage of Terrorism and the End of Globalization ) is part of a report by Robert N. Charette about the Orc's ability to turn and burn faster than our military still wedded to the pre-internet Napoleonic top down power structure. “For every move we make, the enemy makes three,” U.S. Brigadier General Joe E. Ramirez Jr. told attendees at a May conference on IEDs. “The enemy changes techniques, tactics, and procedures every two to three weeks. Our biggest task is staying current and relevant.”

Robert N. Charette, the author of the article: Open Source Warfare adds:"Nearly everyone I spoke with agreed there is a serious mismatch between the West's industrial-age approach to warfare and the insurgents' more fluid and adaptive style."

The death of all gatekeepers as a result of the birth of the internet now provides power to small groups to declare war on nations. “What we are seeing is the empowerment of the individual to conduct war,” says John Robb. the internet and global access is providing the Orcs with expanded weaponry resupply and idea exchange that outstrips our military-industrial complex dependent mentality. The idea that 7th century Orcs can develop weapons and tactics more effective than we can is one we can not dismiss despite the fact that Orcs in Iraq are on the run and in Afghanistan their tactics of going toe to toe with Nato forces has totally decimated their ranks.

A solution to revamp our pentagon/industrial top down lethargic weapons acquisition system is available: platform-based systems. Robb says "the solution is for defense acquisition to move away from what he calls “point innovations”—that is, stand-alone systems—to platform-based systems. A platform is a collection of services and capabilities that everyone can modify." Similar to a standard off the shelf computer that your customize to do what you want with out having to return to the drawing board to invent another computer.

This idea of platform based system is currently being used by The Open Handset Alliance, a group of mobile and technology leaders, united to build a better phone for consumers. Their first joint project "as a new Alliance is called Android. Android is a complete platform that will give mobile operators, handset manufacturers, and developers everything they need to build innovative devices, software and services."

This film illustrates how their platform would operate to provide a new phone for consumers. Note how business suffers from the same problems the military has in providing cutting edge equipment to the field. However, the business man has to answer the current question or risk becoming the latest fossil. The Pentagon will have to go to Congress for money or eventually surrender to the enemy. Listen to the these business men express their frustrations and ideas and how similar they are to the military. The military has to get away from the mindset inherited from the industrial era. Imagine then, what this concept in use by innovative companies to facilitate our troops in the field could do: