Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

militarytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 322 posts

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

#141

Post by yread »

linuxkerneldev wrote: post #56
cyberferret wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was living in South East Asia when the USS Vincennes incident took place, and it was widely reported there. But I do remember when I returned to Australia, hardly anybody knew about what had happened. That was my first introduction to 'curated news' by various countries. Of course, a few years later when the family of the Captain of the Vincennes was targeted in a failed car bomb attack, we heard a bit about this '…

> the USS Vincennes incident took place Summary for those who like me didn't know about the incident. Our guy shot down a passenger flight, murdering 290 human beings, we gave him a medal but we then paid USD$213,000 in blood money per passenger to Iran without ever admitting fault. " Iran Air Flight 655 was an Iran Air passenger flight from Tehran to Dubai. On 3 July 1988, the aircraft operating on this route was sh…

Compare it to KAL 007 5 years prior. Wiki has the front pages of News Week "Murder in the skies" vs "Why it happened". Would be interesting to see what to Soviet newspapers were writing - Soviets didn't acknowledge they shot down the plane until 5 days later! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_Air_Lines_Flight_007#In...

In conclusion when an imperialistic superpower makes a mistake don't expect apologies.

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

#142

Post by 3131s »

jameslk wrote: post #129
csallen wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. People don't know the half of it, and in my experience, they don't want to know. It's comforting to feel like the good guys. The media is complicit, in that it intentionally leaves out relevant facts that might make us look bad. For example, take Iran. In 1953, we overthrew their democratically-e…

> Honestly, I somewhat doubt a thread like this could make it to the top of HN at a time when most Americans aren't sleeping. Americans don't want to read this stuff. I completely agree with you, and I'm an American. To claim that Americans are the only ones that need to wake up is a bit disingenuous though. Perhaps we need a wakeup call from the outside. The nations that have allied with the US, or benefit from frie…

I'm American too (and I posted this) and I fear that you two are correct. I live on the other side of the world though, hence the posting hours. I was totally surprised to see this at #1 for a bit, though I am just happy that it's getting discussed. No candidate for president will ever get my vote unless they talk seriously about scaling back the American military-industrial complex.

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

#143

Post by jacobush »

bayesian_horse wrote: post #140
jacobush wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Make that Russia and the US. Still, it's better that they divide at least some spoils at the table in the UN. The alternative could be on the battlefield :-/

The US isn't getting any "spoils" from the wars it fought. At best they are keeping trade lines open. In no sense did they profit from their actions. Russia, maybe. The invasion of Crimea may have been profitable, if it weren't for the sanctions. Which is one of the best arguments in favor of these sanctions.

I did not mean literally spoils in the form of land. I meant in the form of influence, economy or whatever is at stake. And that if you have two opponents, it's at least better that they communicate over a conference table than over the battlefield, proxy wars for instance. The UN voting process and security council may seem unpalatable, but it's better to have it than not having it. At least it is more transparent and on record what the various powers that be want. (I agree with what you said above. These sanctions are good. Crimea is the only conquered territory.)

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

#144

Post by ArtDev »

2bad4u2b wrote: post #57
megous wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Syria: Assad complained about that in recent interview with Belgian press. It's also hard to say he's against ISIS. But anyway, he's a dictator and a paranoic who sees terrorists everywhere and can't even fathom that opposition against him may be legitimate, so his permission means nothing really. http://www.globalresearch.ca/president-al-assad-to-belgian-m... [I'm not endorsing this website in any way. It just was t…

Assad is the President , he's extremely popular , he won the internationally observed election , hands down . If you say that Assad isn't the legitimate leader your the one spreading crap . I lived there 19 of the last 32 years .

Assad needs to be prosecuted for war crimes against his own people.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/feb/07/saydna...

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

#145

Post by TeMPOraL »

DanBC wrote: post #90
jahnu wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's even sadder is with a few billion much of that uxo could be cleaned up but they struggle for basic funding to clear some each year. In my mind that displays there is little remorse for past actions.

Here' an example of landmine clearance in Cambodia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWfNZoXr6rQ (From CmdrFred's comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12187512#12190918 )

Holy hell. Filming that takes guts. Doing the disarming is the next level of courage.

I just wonder how much deaths did it cost them to get the knowledge and proficiency in clearing those mines.

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

#146

Post by TeMPOraL »

rimantas wrote: post #104
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…

Except bombs are dropped by the military and the victims of the terror attacks are civilians.

Let's not pretend that being an official military of an official, globally recognized government makes indiscriminate killing of civilians somehow better than doing the same as official military of an unofficial government...

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

#147

Post by pjc50 »

starik36 wrote: post #75
csallen wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. People don't know the half of it, and in my experience, they don't want to know. It's comforting to feel like the good guys. The media is complicit, in that it intentionally leaves out relevant facts that might make us look bad. For example, take Iran. In 1953, we overthrew their democratically-e…

I am not sure what your point is in bringing Iran, maybe its to blame the US for the current situation there. Keep in mind that 1953 was over 60 years ago. To keep on blaming US for acts committed that long ago and apply to today...well, it's ridiculous.

But the "system" that encouraged those acts is still in place and unrepentant. By "system" I mean both the institutions and the set of beliefs that are held by the public and politicians that justify this kind of action.

It shouldn't be forgotten until there's some kind of admittance of wrongdoing and resolve to prevent it. Such as by supporting strong impartial international rule of law. Which would actually help the US when dealing with Russian destabilisation efforts - at the moment they can just argue "you say it's legitimate when you do it".

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

#148

Post by fit2rule »

js8 wrote: post #136
fit2rule wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The decisions are made by people, following policies that have been in place for decades.

Sometimes, sometimes not. Marshall plan wasn't based on decades of policy, but rather on decades of experience.

I think you mean to say: The Marshall Plan is a policy, formulated on the basis of decades of experience.

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

#149

Post by Zahreddine »

megous wrote: post #78
2bad4u2b wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Assad is the President , he's extremely popular , he won the internationally observed election , hands down . If you say that Assad isn't the legitimate leader your the one spreading crap . I lived there 19 of the last 32 years .

We had elections in communist Czechslovakia too, where the party got 99% of votes, just like with Assads. Was it democratic? No. It is frankly ridiculous to say that any elections with these kinds of results are in any way meaningful expressions of popular support. We also had forced demonstration of support for the government. Had to go into parades, etc. The question is if you would be willing to go there now and p…

>internationally observed election

Key words

>The question is if you would be willing to go there now and publicly propose that Assad should not be a president, without fear of being thrown into prison?

Not right now, they are in a state of civil war, I'd wait until it's over and things settle down.

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

#150

Post by Zahreddine »

ArtDev wrote: post #144
2bad4u2b wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Assad is the President , he's extremely popular , he won the internationally observed election , hands down . If you say that Assad isn't the legitimate leader your the one spreading crap . I lived there 19 of the last 32 years .

Assad needs to be prosecuted for war crimes against his own people. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/feb/07/saydna...

Sure once a legitimate investigation provides proof.
Post reply on HN