Preview: Drones
August 13, 2009 11:51 AM
Increasingly, the U.S. military is relying on un-manned, often armed aircraft to track and destroy the enemy - sometimes controlled from bases thousands of miles away from the battlefront.
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No figures were given as to how many Iraqi or Afghan civilians have been killed by these horrific killing machines. And certainly no interviews with flesh and blood Afghans who have been victimized by them. The pilots who fire the missiles don't have to even see (except as black and white video game images), let alone deal with the blood and gore and human suffering they produce.
No ethical and/or theological reflection is given on troublesome facts like this is done in a sovereign country, unleashes profound human suffering, dehumanizes both the perpetrators and the victims, and is Orwellian/surreal by its very nature. Imagine for a minute such a killing machine in the skies over the US! We would not stand for anything remotely like that! What must it be like to live with such terror?
And as usual, no questioning of the American policy that turned us into brutal occupiers in both Iraq and Afghanistan. No other ideas as to how to deal with international terrorism. To do so might lead us into who is profiting from this slaughter and why it must be maintained at all costs.
Ah, yes, cost. $2 billion a day for the two wars , or so? I wonder what we could do with that in our own country? Health care, education, infrastructure ... and a solvent economy?
I found the piece very shallow, one-sided to the point of being propagandistic, and ultimately shameful.
We can now have cowards and psychopaths join the military.
Why, heck, even the Chickenhawks like Bush and Cheney who manipulated the intelligence on 9-11 to lie the nation into precisely these wars could even serve now and never risk their hides.
I find these drones of death- embarrassing, cowardly, frightening.
I hate what our nation has become.
Coming to a city near you.
Terminators are here.
Why not use this tech for u.s.?
How about patrolling the borders?
We often say that we "do what we can" to avoid collateral damage, and that it is "regretable." I'm sure the first is true, and I agree with the second. But these victims tend to see accidental damage and death as the same as intentional actions. Unless and until we really understand that (and I am not saying we need to agree with it), we will have absolutely no chance to remove the threat of terrorism from Islamic extremists.
After years of school and hard work this is the big interview question you come up with? Wow , maybe you should give the weather a try.
How about some other questions like ; What are the success rates of the UAV program? Who are we pursuing/capturing/eliminating? What have they done to deserve our most technologicaly advaced attention?
I would love to see the same question posed to a guy on the other side building a road-side bomb. What if they get it wrong too? Then what? They all quit and go home?
Great steps are taken to ensure that only the Gomers get a 3am wakeup call from a Hellfire. It takes a lawyer half the time to give permission to shoot for pete's sake!
Problem is they hide between the skirts of their women and children, in mosques, hospitals, schools. Sometimes the shot needs to be taken when the single opportunity arises. Collateral damage is regrettbale but unavoidable. These are bad@$$ MFRs.
The Hellfire on the Reaper/Predator is just the beginning. UAVs can go where survivability is doubtful, will eventually outperform manned aircraft in manueveraobility and capability. The Army and USN have made the paradigm shift, the AF is a little slow, but they too will make the move to fully automated UAVs. The F-35 may be the last manned US tactical aircraft!