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Nov. 6, 2009
Rabbi Berel Wein: Choosing to hear
JWisdom.com Zero to 1/60th: How to Empower An Hour with Gavriel Aryeh Sande (7 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick The mullahs' big week
Suzanne Fields A Fallen Wall for Fallen Man
Nov. 5, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet: Three scrumptious -- but simple -- butternut squash dishes
JWisdom.com Hidden Hints: Unlocking Faith & Prayer with Rabbi Jay Yaacov Schwartz (10 minutes)
Nov. 4, 2009
Tom Hamburger and Kim Geiger: Should prayers be covered?
JWisdom.com When God played peacemaker With Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes)
Nov. 3, 2009
Martin Peretz: Beware, Barack. Beware, Rahm. Beware, Axelrod
JWisdom.com Are you are closet idolater? With Sara Yoheved Rigler (10 minutes)
Nov. 2, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The Holocaust is now on Facebook
JWisdom.com Abraham's Strange Change With Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer (5 minutes)
Oct. 30, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: Secret to Immortality
Caroline B. Glick Silencing dissent in America
Oct. 29, 2009
Lini S. Kadaba: Do tactics avert flu or reduce humanity?
JWisdom.com We Must Revamp our Religious Vocabulary With Gavriel Aryeh Sanders ( 10 minutes)
Oct. 28, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Atheists in Bubbleland
JWisdom.com Why what we wear impacts who we are With Rabbis Mordechai Becher, Menachem Golberger and Aliza Bulow ( 10 minutes)
Oct. 27, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The United Nations Is Outraged Again, Or: Department of Mideast Static
JWisdom.com The Science of Love With Rabbi Jonathan Rietti ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 26, 2009
The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Damaging disclosures with a twist
JWisdom.com Wisdom and Wonks With Rabbi Eytan Feiner ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 23, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: Are you ready for the ultimate pleasure?
JWisdom.com Watermark and oneness with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 4 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick Stop using limited powers in a way that expands our enemies' advantages over us
Oct. 22, 2009
Steven Emerson: Terror Cases Share Desire to Kill Americans
JWisdom.com No More More Family Fights --- Really? By Sarah Chana Radcliffe ( 5 minutes)
Oct. 21, 2009
Tonya Alanez: Holocaust denier sues survivor, calling Auschwitz memoir 'vicious lies'
JWisdom.com Meditating Jewishly: A Panacea for Success by Sarah Yoheved Rigler ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 20, 2009
Dennis Prager: Obama and Dalai Lama: Why Israel Worries about U.S. President
JWisdom.com Abraham was not religious By Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer ( 6 minutes)
Oct. 19, 2009
JWisdom.comWhy Good People Do Bad Things By Rabbi Eytan Feiner ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 16, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: The Perfect Number
JWisdom.com Hearing Voices By Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 5 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick How Turkey was lost
Oct. 15, 2009
Jeff Jacoby: Peace vs. the 'peace process'
JWisdom.com: Former MTV producer and stand-up comedian Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff: Taming a Control Freak (A VERY fast 15 minutes)
Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review March 4, 2008 / 27 Adar I 5768

Give a troop a Jake

By Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Ever wish, upon hearing that yet another of our soldiers or Marines has been killed or wounded while operating in dangerous areas of Iraq or Afghanistan, that you could do something - anything - to reduce the chances it will happen again?


Such a powerful and understandable sentiment seems to be operating in the minds of millions of Americans currently backing Democratic presidential candidates who promise, if elected, to begin immediately withdrawing our forces from harm's way (at least the Iraqi part). Unfortunately, this approach is not likely to prevent more American forces, or for that matter civilians, from getting hurt. To the contrary, our defeat and retreat under fire from one or both of these fronts in this global War for the Free World will set the stage for vastly worse carnage, certainly abroad and probably at home.


Those who subscribe to that assessment - and even many who do not - hope that, by supporting large and growing defense budgets, the troops will get what they need in the way of equipment to do their missions and receive the protection required to do so safely. To a very considerable degree, that is the case.


What if there were something more we could do though, something that might make a real difference - both to the safety of our guys on the ground and to their success? My guess is that millions of Americans would be willing to help.


It turns out that there is something else we as civilians might be able to do to transform the effectiveness and survivability of infantry soldiers and Marine "ground-pounders," troops who are obliged to perform today's tough jobs in urban settings and elsewhere pretty much the same way their grandfathers did in World War II. It involves a device known as a "Jake" - an infantryman's personal mobility, sensor and weapons platform best described as a "Segway on steroids."


The invention of the Jake is a classic American story. It is the brainchild of Russell Strong, a brilliant engineer and innovator known in his industry as "Mr. Tractor" for his revolutionary designs in the agricultural and heavy equipment industries. He started out in 1999 trying to perfect a means of providing revolutionary mobility to wheelchair-bound individuals. When he presented his concept to veterans wounded in Vietnam and Somalia, they urged him to adapt it for their comrades fighting today's wars - and tomorrow's.


The result is a compact unit with two Humvee-size wheels in back and two smaller wheels in front, the capacity to carry either two soldiers (and, where needed, a few more hitching rides on running boards), one soldier and up to a 2,000-pound pallet of gear, or no soldiers at all, thanks to the Jake's ability to be operated by remote control. This platform relies on its agility, speed and ability to operate in a "swarm" to give unprecedented options to troops fighting in alleys and other areas or working to interact constructively with civilians, while deterring attacks.


Powered by a hybrid electric engine, Jake can move stealthily in combat and with minimal disruption in crowded marketplaces. Each platform can also serve as a source of electrical power for the military, something always in short supply in forward operating positions.


Visionary military leaders like the Army's retiring Vice Chief of Staff, Gen. Richard Cody, have called the Jake "the warrior transformer." Interestingly, the more junior the personnel, the greater the appreciation for the contribution such devices might make, now and in the future. Some preparing to deploy to Iraq have, when shown an early Jake prototype, pleaded with Mr. Strong to let them take it along.


So, what's the problem? The very qualities that make the Jake such a potentially transformative asset cause many in the institutional military to recoil from its early adoption. Like IBM, which once famously failed to appreciate that the day of the large, immensely expensive mainframe computer was giving way to the era of PCs and proliferating software, the armed forces need to appreciate that Jake represents the advent of an era when "networked" or "distributed" warfare is the norm - not something to which lip-service is paid.


For their part, many defense contractors recognize that Jake could enable them finally to overcome the weight-barrier to equipping foot soldiers with more firepower, technologies designed to counter roadside bombs and snipers and the integrated support of unmanned aerial vehicles. In the absence of a stated military requirement for Jake, however, few are willing to provide the $10 million required to develop and equip the first dozen prototypes needed to evaluate this platform and begin evolving concepts for its utilization. As things stand now, without a change of heart in the Pentagon or intervention from Capitol Hill, the whole effort to realize the Jake's promise could come to naught.


There is, as a result, an opportunity for the American people to help. Find out more about the Jake at www.AmericanAgility.com. If you like what you see there, make a contribution to allow Russ Strong and his team to overcome the inertia that has for too long kept these assets from saving the lives, and contributing to the success, of our brave troops in harm's way.


Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.

JWR contributor Frank J. Gaffney, Jr. heads the Center for Security Policy. Comments by clicking here.

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America has been at war for years, but until now, it has not been clear with whom or precisely for what. And we have not been using the full resources we need to win.

With the publication of War Footing, lead-authored by Frank Gaffney, it not only becomes clear who the enemy is and how high the stakes are, but also exactly how we can prevail.

War Footing shows that we are engaged in nothing less than a War for the Free World. This is a fight to the death with Islamofascists, Muslim extremists driven by a totalitarian political ideology that, like Nazism or Communism before it, is determined to destroy freedom and the people who love it. Sales help fund JWR.

© 2006, Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.

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