Geography and war

You may have read at the weekend that British Army intelligence in Basra in Iraq have complained that terrorists attacking British bases have been using Google Earth in order to pinpoint their attacks. A raid on the homes of insurgents has uncovered print-outs from Google Earth. Apparently these show vulnerable areas inside army blocks such as tented accommodation, toilet blocks or vehicle parking areas.

Soldiers are threatening to sue Google if it transpires that one of their number is killed as a result of information gleaned from Google Earth.

It is certainly an interesting issue. Though I suppose that the British Army also finds commercially available satellite images useful for their purposes. I know that Russia during the cold war period used to produce maps which were deliberately not to scale in order to confuse an enemy who might get hold of those maps.

Should Google stop mapping sensitive military areas? Who would decide on which areas fall within that definition.

I guess this does show that geography now impacts on such a wide range of issues these days. I suspect this is something we must just live with and of course in most parts of the world such up-to-date detail is very much a benefit.