Hi All and Merry Christmas!
I remember in 1994 while I was in Somalia, a shipment of portable GPS units was looted by the local clans. The response from the US was to induce a signal error into the sattelites that covered the region. It took us 3 days to get the correction codes from the US Government rep in MOG. It was very inconvenient but I'll bet there were some really confused Somalies who couldn't figure out why they ended up in Baledogle instead of Baidoa!
I have no problem with the manipulation of signal, but it must be NOTAM'ed. Since that time in 94, I have always encouraged my co-pilots to navigate via traditional navaids and maps at least once a month. I find that the younger crowd, (and I am by no means old, mid-forties) is becoming more and more dependant on GPS, a wonderful tool, but not the only one.
If the US decides to shut it all down, then so be it. We still have maps and VOR's, NDB's etc. It's not the end of the world.
Cheers,
OffshoreIgor