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Thousands of deadly U.S. military airstrikes have gone unreported

militarytimes.com

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Re: Thousands of deadly U.S. military airstrikes have gone unreported

#11

Post by dcposch »

i'm disappointed that hardly any members of the media or Democratic party establishment talk about Obama's expansion of the drone program.

we have a long list of names. the executive branch of our government curates the list unilaterally and in secret. then, we cross names off the list by killing them. sometimes, they're American citizens. often, they're in countries we're at peace or even allied with.

there are children in Yemen right now who are afraid of blue skies. drones fly high enough to be invisible to the naked eye; most strikes are carried out in clear weather.

i'm near certain that history will judge us harshly.

in any case, it's Trump's drone program now. i hope the technologists who created this infrastructure think about that when they try to sleep.

Re: Thousands of deadly U.S. military airstrikes have gone unreported

#12

Post by nhaliday »

educar wrote: post #5

If you still think of the world as divided into good and evil, then I have to break it to you that you have been played. Brainwashed by years and years of media programming. One man's terrorist is another man's hero. The U.S routinely bombs other sovereign countries and this is show cased as a "hero" activity. If the bombed people retaliate, they are terrorists. The truth is not black/white. Same way U.S data surveil…

People complain about US govt surveillance all the time. It doesn't always lead to change but there's a healthy degree of dissent.

Re: Thousands of deadly U.S. military airstrikes have gone unreported

#13

Post by nharada »

dcposch wrote: post #11

i'm disappointed that hardly any members of the media or Democratic party establishment talk about Obama's expansion of the drone program. we have a long list of names. the executive branch of our government curates the list unilaterally and in secret. then, we cross names off the list by killing them. sometimes, they're American citizens. often, they're in countries we're at peace or even allied with. there are chil…

"I just like solving interesting problems, I don't care about politics. And besides, if I don't do it someone else will anyway"

Re: Thousands of deadly U.S. military airstrikes have gone unreported

#14

Post by [deleted] »

nharada wrote: post #13
dcposch wrote: post #11

i'm disappointed that hardly any members of the media or Democratic party establishment talk about Obama's expansion of the drone program. we have a long list of names. the executive branch of our government curates the list unilaterally and in secret. then, we cross names off the list by killing them. sometimes, they're American citizens. often, they're in countries we're at peace or even allied with. there are chil…

"I just like solving interesting problems, I don't care about politics. And besides, if I don't do it someone else will anyway"

[deleted]

Re: Thousands of deadly U.S. military airstrikes have gone unreported

#15

Post by ekianjo »

nhaliday wrote: post #12
educar wrote: post #5

If you still think of the world as divided into good and evil, then I have to break it to you that you have been played. Brainwashed by years and years of media programming. One man's terrorist is another man's hero. The U.S routinely bombs other sovereign countries and this is show cased as a "hero" activity. If the bombed people retaliate, they are terrorists. The truth is not black/white. Same way U.S data surveil…

People complain about US govt surveillance all the time. It doesn't always lead to change but there's a healthy degree of dissent.

> healthy degree of dissent

Hardly, to be honest. Most folks dont care about surveillance at all, and ask for more state powers.

Re: Thousands of deadly U.S. military airstrikes have gone unreported

#16

Post by cyberferret »

RileyJames wrote: post #10
cyberferret wrote: post #4

I understand that for operational secrecy reason, not all action would be published, but I would have thought there should be at least post mission briefings and outcomes being discussed by news sources and political leaders after the fact? For instance, here in Australia I know there has been a squadron of F/A-18s conducting bombing and strike campaigns in Afghanistan, but we don't hear anything at all about the sor…

I had no idea, what (if any) details are reported and where? Do you suggest any sources I can follow to stay more informed of Australian involvement?

There is really no public channel that I am aware of. Googling around I see news articles from ABC etc., but those seem to be more of a PR spin on our involvement over there.

The reason that I personally know is that my sister in law and her husband are both in the RAAF and have been deployed in the Middle East a few times (though not Afghanistan).

Re: Thousands of deadly U.S. military airstrikes have gone unreported

#17

Post by bpodgursky »

educar wrote: post #5

If you still think of the world as divided into good and evil, then I have to break it to you that you have been played. Brainwashed by years and years of media programming. One man's terrorist is another man's hero. The U.S routinely bombs other sovereign countries and this is show cased as a "hero" activity. If the bombed people retaliate, they are terrorists. The truth is not black/white. Same way U.S data surveil…

> The U.S routinely bombs other sovereign countries and this is show cased as a "hero" activity

There's a lot of nuance here, because there isn't really a (current) clear-cut case of the US bombing a sovereign nation where the government has not given the US permission. Of the current active campaigns:

- Afghanistan

- Iraq

- Pakistan

Each of these countries has a functioning government, even mostly democratically elected, and all US military involvement is with the permission of the host -- if Pakistan told the US to stop using their airbases, it would happen.

- Syria

There's less explicit permission here, but the US is bombing a current enemy of the Syrian federal government, so there's no real complaining.

- Somalia

- Yemen

- Libya

It's completely ambiguous which government you consider to be the sovereign one (arguably, there really isn't one). Either way, at least the publicly backed government is OK with US airstrikes.

Re: Thousands of deadly U.S. military airstrikes have gone unreported

#18

Post by andrei_says_ »

educar wrote: post #5

If you still think of the world as divided into good and evil, then I have to break it to you that you have been played. Brainwashed by years and years of media programming. One man's terrorist is another man's hero. The U.S routinely bombs other sovereign countries and this is show cased as a "hero" activity. If the bombed people retaliate, they are terrorists. The truth is not black/white. Same way U.S data surveil…

The older I get the more interesting and sensible Chomsky gets. Until a few years ago I was perceiving him as boring and monotone and now I am seeing a fierce warrior of truth* holding language as his weapon.

This 9 min. excerpt on propaganda terms in the Media is especially appropriate.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vmoXze-Higc

*I don't mean some objective truth out there but a viewpoint which is rooted in his very well informed worldview and his obvious commitment to integrity.

Re: Thousands of deadly U.S. military airstrikes have gone unreported

#19

Post by kurttheviking »

dcposch wrote: post #11

i'm disappointed that hardly any members of the media or Democratic party establishment talk about Obama's expansion of the drone program. we have a long list of names. the executive branch of our government curates the list unilaterally and in secret. then, we cross names off the list by killing them. sometimes, they're American citizens. often, they're in countries we're at peace or even allied with. there are chil…

> i'm disappointed that i haven't seen a single member of the media or Democratic party establishments talk about Obama's expansion of the drone program.

I have been hearing and reading about the expansion of Obama's drone program for years in "the media". Some quick Googling shows several examples.

- http://www.npr.org/2013/04/28/179597464/leading-senate-democ...

- http://www.npr.org/2012/06/20/155389081/are-drones-obamas-le...

- http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/23/politics/obama-drone-warren-we...

- https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/obamas-drone-war-is-...

- http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2016/01/12/reflecting-o...

One can argue that consumers of media have chosen to ignore or accept these stories, but I think it's a little disingenuous to suggest the issues aren't being raised at all.

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