The scale of such transformations is staggering. For example, at the beginning of the war in Iraq, US forces had no robotic systems on the ground. However, by 2004, they already deployed 150 robots, in 2005 there were 2,400; and by the end of 2008, about 12,000 robots of nearly two dozen varieties were operating on the ground, according to The New Atlantis.

Hmmm ...