I don't see why the author thinks we would ground our fleet. Police routinely and deliberately kill innocent people in the US, and we don't "ground our police force."
We might, if the police stormed a wedding and killed over a dozen people.
If a Drone Strike Hit an American Wedding We'd Ground Our Fleet
291–300 of 361 posts
Re: If a Drone Strike Hit an American Wedding We'd Ground Our Fleet
#292Earlier quoted context omitted.
Let me guess, you think there's a cure for cancer but the doctors are withholding it and Exxon Mobil bought the patent for a combustion engine that would achieve 100+ mpg. Any industry that is built on addressing problems that people naturally have is going to generate lots of revenue. It has been proven that people naturally fight with each other. People fight over race, religion, sports, politics, and territory. Na…
It's all about capabilities. Back in the 80's and 90's, people who insisted the NSA did all this or that really couldn't explain how the technology would work to do all that. People insisted spy satellites could read my newspaper, yada yada. About 5 years ago, the chips, scale-out HW, storage and Linux (thanks submitters!) reached the point where the known daily capacity of information stream or their meta could be s…
Usenet, before Sept 1993, carried the rumor that "the CIA" was archiving all Usenet posts.
I don't think that was too off-the-wall, even in 1988 or '89.
I can recall, although not google up, at least one back-of-the-envelope effort to figure out if some organization could store all internet traffic. I think the answer was "yes", and this was done maybe 5 years ago.
Re: If a Drone Strike Hit an American Wedding We'd Ground Our Fleet
#293The way America is conducting the war on terror is both self-defeating and morally repugnant.
What you say is absolutely true. But another large problem here is that the targeted countries' governments are ok with those strikes for the most part. Have you noticed that those strikes only happen in poor countries with little means of retaliation?
A large finance source for the Al-Nushra front in Africa is Jordan/Saudi Arabia. But those countries are allies to the US, so there are no drone strikes there. There are also no strikes in Iran or Syria.
Yemen government is very complicit to those strikes and it should at be mentioned in such articles.
Re: If a Drone Strike Hit an American Wedding We'd Ground Our Fleet
#294Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is profitable. If terrorists disappeared tomorrow. Let's say we use our surgical strike weapons to target every cell every member, and in one hour they are gone. What would happen? Billions of dollars disappear from the pockets of everyone in the chain. Military contractors, drone maintenance, promotions, bonuses, career advancements, no more completed missions, medals, no job to go to. So the direct financial and…
You realize that the fiction of a coherent "Military Industrial Complex" has been debunked several times right? One by the General Accounting Office showed that military contractors actually had higher profits in peacetime than wartime because they got money for 'research' and didn't have to actually produce any product.
Not too much peacetime going on:
Re: If a Drone Strike Hit an American Wedding We'd Ground Our Fleet
#295Earlier quoted context omitted.
You realize that the fiction of a coherent "Military Industrial Complex" has been debunked several times right? One by the General Accounting Office showed that military contractors actually had higher profits in peacetime than wartime because they got money for 'research' and didn't have to actually produce any product.
Not too much peacetime going on: http://i.imgur.com/Mwe1jxG.jpg
surprising they'd forget the Korean war on there.
Re: If a Drone Strike Hit an American Wedding We'd Ground Our Fleet
#296I don't understand why commenters don't actually discuss Obama's argument. He has the following options: - Do nothing - Use drones - Use conventional weapons which, he argues, would have more collateral damage - Put troops on the ground and be perceived as an invader. So either you should argue that these are not the options or you should argue that he did not pick the right one.
Doing nothing is a very good option, esp. versus sending bombs on weddings where maybe, according to "intelligence reports" (which should rather be called "reports from retards") a couple of "suspected terrorists" could be present.
Putting troops on the ground would be worse than doing nothing, but still better, less cowardly and maybe less error-prone than bombing from drones.
Using conventional weapons would actually be the worst option.
So out of (his own set of) four, he picked the 3rd worse.
Re: If a Drone Strike Hit an American Wedding We'd Ground Our Fleet
#297Earlier quoted context omitted.
Blowing up a wedding is not extraordinary? 'Not taking sides' doesn't cut it - you're either doing your bit to end drone strikes like these, or you are morally bankrupt. There is no fence sitting when civilians are being blown up.
Civilians are blown up in every war, drones did not create this problem, and eliminating UAVs will not end it. If you want people to be "doing your bit to end drone strikes", you should consider that the probable counter-factual is not an end to non-combatant (civilian) deaths; civilian mortality may increase, decrease, or stay the same, depending on what tactics are chosen to replace drones.
> Civilians are blown up in every war
Yes, but this isn't a war. It's a bunch of crude assassinations. There are no meaningful military objectives regrettably costing some civilian lives; these drone strikes are the primary act of war, and they accomplish nothing of value. They just breed more enemies.
Re: If a Drone Strike Hit an American Wedding We'd Ground Our Fleet
#298The way America is conducting the war on terror is both self-defeating and morally repugnant.
It's very easy to not agree with the way the US government handles these sort of things, but you have to give them the benefit of the doubt that they are not doing this for shits and giggles. It might seem nationalistic to some but it reminds me of a quote from "A Few Good Men" - Son, we live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Who's gonna do it? You? You, Lt. Weinburg? I h…
"but you have to give them the benefit of the doubt that they are not doing this for shits and giggles."
Maybe you shouldn't give them the benefit of the doubt on those horrible things they are doing in your name.
Those numerous killing of civilians should require at least some questioning.
Re: If a Drone Strike Hit an American Wedding We'd Ground Our Fleet
#299I don't see why the author thinks we would ground our fleet. Police routinely and deliberately kill innocent people in the US, and we don't "ground our police force."
We might, if the police stormed a wedding and killed over a dozen people.
I think you're being naive about what police in the US can do with very little resistance or punishment (especially internal). Remember things like:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_State_shootings http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackson_State_killings http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege
Re: If a Drone Strike Hit an American Wedding We'd Ground Our Fleet
#300Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is profitable. If terrorists disappeared tomorrow. Let's say we use our surgical strike weapons to target every cell every member, and in one hour they are gone. What would happen? Billions of dollars disappear from the pockets of everyone in the chain. Military contractors, drone maintenance, promotions, bonuses, career advancements, no more completed missions, medals, no job to go to. So the direct financial and…
You realize that the fiction of a coherent "Military Industrial Complex" has been debunked several times right? One by the General Accounting Office showed that military contractors actually had higher profits in peacetime than wartime because they got money for 'research' and didn't have to actually produce any product.
I wonder then, what is your explanation of why the US military behaves the way it does?