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California missile test: Social media nightmare or exactly what the Navy wanted?
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of Washington Post
Posted: December 13th, 2015
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2015/11/09...
Theres no longer any doubt that thousands of West Coasters witnessed an unarmed missile streaking across the sky Saturday night. What remains open to interpretation: Why? Why test-fire a missile within sight of the nations second-largest city? Did officials underestimate social medias ability to turn a routine event into front-page fodder? Or was that the plan all along, using the inevitable influence of social media to flex Americas military might for observers in Beijing and Moscow? The answer: Its complicated. Loren Thompson, a military analyst who used to teach nuclear strategy at Georgetown University, told The Washington Post that We have entered an era when anybody can reach a large audience using social media and the blogosphere, so the military needs to look closely at the implications of testing close to population centers. Obviously, with something as large as a Trident II missile, whether you launch during the daytime or at night, it will be visible, he said. Thats just the nature of it. Even so, the extra attention might not have mattered to military officials, Thompson said. If you ignore the frenzy on social media, there is a benefit to visibility: The U.S. Navy, Thompson writes in Forbes, views nuclear deterrence as its most important mission, and the Trident is the backbone of that deterrence. You could have demonstrated same point to the Russians or the Chinese without getting people really concerned in L.A., Thompson told The Post.
Note: For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles about government corruption and media manipulation.
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