a very good article on the predator drones

[blu]

The risks of the C.I.A.’s Predator drones : The New Yorker

 

[blu]

In February, 2002, along the mountainous eastern border of Afghanistan, a Predator reportedly followed and killed three suspicious Afghans, including a tall man in robes who was thought to be bin Laden. The victims turned out to be innocent villagers, gathering scrap metal.

stuff like this is totally inexcusable to me though. the people responsible for that should have been charged

 

[blu]

i do agree with the results against top people in the groups though

 

[blu]

really glad I read that article. talks about everything from legal issues involving the drones all the way to the positive and negative effects they are having on the war effort.

 

[rightwinger]

It must suck being a terrorist

 

[xsited1]

In February, 2002, along the mountainous eastern border of Afghanistan, a Predator reportedly followed and killed three suspicious Afghans, including a tall man in robes who was thought to be bin Laden. The victims turned out to be innocent villagers, gathering scrap metal.

stuff like this is totally inexcusable to me though. the people responsible for that should have been charged

I've decided to coin a new term for innocents killed during war: Collateral Damage. Think it'll catch on?

 

[Mr. H.]

9/11/01 launched the "seek and destroy" aspect of the Predator program.

It w/be interesting to see how the nano-drones play out.

 

[blu]

It must suck being a terrorist

if you read the article many people have been killed by mistake that were provably not terrorists. this has been cleaned up though with the use of the drones in the last couple years and the multiple layers of certainty needed before firing.

 

[blu]

9/11/01 launched the "seek and destroy" aspect of the Predator program.

It w/be interesting to see how the nano-drones play out.

the nano-drones scare teh shit out of me. cia will have killers the size of a quarter that can kill anyone, anywhere in the world. knowing their history of non-cooperation with legitimate usa oversight, I really doubt this program will be used properly.

 

[kyzr]

Progress. Hope the terrorists sleep well knowing whats coming after them.

 

[cbi0090]

This technology is just the kind of development that was bound to occur in response to having to fight a non-nation organization who hides behind arbitrary boundaries that, for reasons beyond me, we choose to honor. The hit squads they talked about could work as well but there would is more risk in those, and we all know how our media is when it comes to taking risks.
The "innocent" people who these drones are killing though are the same people who is housing and hiding the bad guys and although they may not have much choice in the matter we certainly don't want to make it easy for them to do it. If I thought I might have some missle come through my front door because I was harboring one those people I would be doing all I could to distance myself from them or get out of Dodge. It's the best thing we can do for them.
In this kind of battle, there are no "innocents". They selected this kind of shadow warfare because they kill and hide behind "innocents" because they are cowards. Their philosphy, their mantra, their psuedo-religion is bull-shit and they know themselves it won't pass muster in an open dialogue so instead, they do what they do; preying on the hapless and hopeless ignorant to do their will. Unfortunately, there seems to be no end to the number of those folks in such a backward region of the world that is dominated by such an unenlightened and primitve religion.
We talk about "innocents" like they know what we mean. They don't. They kill each other other over far less weighty matters. Life has little meaning to them. Force and power they understand. Unfortunately, if some inbred, illiterate imam tells them that if they jump off a cliff Allah will reward them; they'll do that too.
If you mean innocent in the sense you would say a rabid dog is innocent if you kill it, then I guess it applies. Otherwise, it's a very poor choice of words.

 

[blu]

Progress. Hope the terrorists sleep well knowing whats coming after them.

indeed. it seems to be working

 

[namvet]

but now the drones are at risk of being compromised. Militants in Iraq have used $26 off-the-shelf software to intercept live video feeds from U.S. Predator drones, potentially providing them with information they need to evade or monitor U.S. military operations.

 

[blu]

In February, 2002, along the mountainous eastern border of Afghanistan, a Predator reportedly followed and killed three suspicious Afghans, including a tall man in robes who was thought to be bin Laden. The victims turned out to be innocent villagers, gathering scrap metal.

stuff like this is totally inexcusable to me though. the people responsible for that should have been charged

I've decided to coin a new term for innocents killed during war: Collateral Damage. Think it'll catch on?

if done properly the drones should severely limit the collateral damage.... its talked about with examples in the article

 

[WillowTree]

The local population was clearly angered by the Pakistani government for allowing the U.S. to target a funeral. (Intelligence had suggested that Mehsud would be among the mourners.) An editorial in The News denounced the strike as sinking to the level of the terrorists. The Urdu newspaper Jang declared that Obama was “shutting his ears to the screams of thousands of women whom your drones have turned into dust.” U.S. officials were undeterred, continuing drone strikes in the region until Mehsud was killed.

Read more: The risks of the C.I.A.’s Predator drones : The New Yorker




Yes, we can relate to that can't we? it was very "dusty" in NYC on 9-11 2001

 

[WillowTree]

Exum says that he’s worried by the remote-control nature of Predator warfare. “As a military person, I put myself in the shoes of someone in FATA”—Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas—“and there’s something about pilotless drones that doesn’t strike me as an honorable way of warfare,” he said. “As a classics major, I have a classical sense of what it means to be a warrior.” An Iraq combat veteran who helped design much of the military’s doctrine for using unmanned drones also has qualms. He said, “There’s something important about putting your own sons and daughters at risk when you choose to wage war as a nation. We risk losing that flesh-and-blood investment if we go too far down this road.”

Read more: The risks of the C.I.A.’s Predator drones : The New Yorker


oh, this is just bullshit propaganda. Use the drones. We've lost too many sons and daughters.