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If a Drone Strike Hit an American Wedding We'd Ground Our Fleet

theatlantic.com

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Re: If a Drone Strike Hit an American Wedding We'd Ground Our Fleet

#331
post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What war are you talking about? What is the objective? What would have to happen for this 'war' to end?

When you have an army shooting at people in a foreign country, there is a war; call it whatever you want.

So, as a New Zealander, I can hire some people to gun down innocents in the US and be on the moral high ground because I'm conducting a 'war' and not terrorism? Neato.

Re: If a Drone Strike Hit an American Wedding We'd Ground Our Fleet

#332

The anti-American rants on here are disgusting. Nobody's calling this a mistake except the media. 5 Al Qaeda dead, 5-10 people sitting next to an Al Qaeda member also dead. Intelligence even pointed out which 4 cars out of the 11 car convoy contained the Al Qaeda members. If you think there is no war going on over there, the 52 civilians slaughtered by Al Qaeda on Dec. 5 in a Sana'a hospital would disagree with you.…

What's your talley of innocent people killed in drone strikes and as "collateral damage" by the US. Do the people affected by those atrocities have the the right to act "in direct response" against the US? If this revenge motive justifies the US, does it not also justify the terrorists?

Re: If a Drone Strike Hit an American Wedding We'd Ground Our Fleet

#333

The anti-American rants on here are disgusting. Nobody's calling this a mistake except the media. 5 Al Qaeda dead, 5-10 people sitting next to an Al Qaeda member also dead. Intelligence even pointed out which 4 cars out of the 11 car convoy contained the Al Qaeda members. If you think there is no war going on over there, the 52 civilians slaughtered by Al Qaeda on Dec. 5 in a Sana'a hospital would disagree with you.…

America's new moral standard? Better than Al Qaeda.

We should be striving for much better standards if the west is to have any moral authority. Not as bad as Russia, China or Al Qaeda is not good enough.

Then there are practical issues that indiscriminate attacks are liable to create as many enemies as they kill as sons, brothers and fathers are bereaved and decide to join the fight.

[Edit: I'm British not American and I'm not saying Britain is any better but I really hate the "we aren't as bad as something really bad" as a defence for either country's actions. We should do better].

Re: If a Drone Strike Hit an American Wedding We'd Ground Our Fleet

#334

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Now would you say there would be more or less violence if the US stopped killing people on foreign soil?

Loaded question for sure :) You're asking me if the US's geopolitical and military operations currently are increasing or decreasing total violence in the world. A tremendously complex question to answer accurately. My answer (opinion) is this: On the whole I think the US has contributed to a decline in total violence in the world. Not to say there haven't been bad decisions along the way. Advances in military tactic…

They should keep doing the stuff that reduces violence. That's all good.

They should stop doing the stuff that increases violence. Like this incident.

Re: If a Drone Strike Hit an American Wedding We'd Ground Our Fleet

#335
post #302
post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>For how many years were people dismissed as nutjobs and "conspiracy theorists" when they talked about NSA spying? Now we know it was all true. Just because it is true, doesn't mean those people aren't nutjobs or conspiracy theorists.

I'm curious what your definition of "nutjob" is, given that you would apparently apply it even to people who are correct about all of their theories.

>I'm curious what your definition of "nutjob" is

I don't really have one but if you must, it's probably someone with a dissociative disorder. I'm just noting that you don't have to be sane to be right.

>given that you would apparently apply it even to people who are correct about all of their theories.

When exactly did I say that?

Re: If a Drone Strike Hit an American Wedding We'd Ground Our Fleet

#336

Ok, although I fundamentally tend to disagree with much of American military policy - if there were people on that bus who had ties to Al Qaeda and american intelligence knew this...and those people were to cause further destruction if they weren't killed...then I just don't know. I kind of imagine this like all of those movies about drug cartels where these incredibly rich families are leading semi-normal lives and…

They could have waited until after the wedding, when the Al Qaeda suspects were apart from the non-suspects, avoiding the risk of collateral damage. Just a thought.

Re: If a Drone Strike Hit an American Wedding We'd Ground Our Fleet

#337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Loaded question for sure :) You're asking me if the US's geopolitical and military operations currently are increasing or decreasing total violence in the world. A tremendously complex question to answer accurately. My answer (opinion) is this: On the whole I think the US has contributed to a decline in total violence in the world. Not to say there haven't been bad decisions along the way. Advances in military tactic…

They should keep doing the stuff that reduces violence. That's all good. They should stop doing the stuff that increases violence. Like this incident.

Agreed.

Just like a startup tries new tactics so does the US military and foreign policy organizations. And just like startups, some of those ideas fail miserably and look like ideas that should have never been tried in the first place :)

Re: If a Drone Strike Hit an American Wedding We'd Ground Our Fleet

#338

Ok, although I fundamentally tend to disagree with much of American military policy - if there were people on that bus who had ties to Al Qaeda and american intelligence knew this...and those people were to cause further destruction if they weren't killed...then I just don't know. I kind of imagine this like all of those movies about drug cartels where these incredibly rich families are leading semi-normal lives and…

They could have waited until after the wedding, when the Al Qaeda suspects were apart from the non-suspects, avoiding the risk of collateral damage. Just a thought.

Maybe, maybe not. We don't have all the intelligence...I guess we just have to hope that was the best call given the circumstances. Not saying that I'm happy that this happened though

Re: If a Drone Strike Hit an American Wedding We'd Ground Our Fleet

#339

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a really good point, and I think that it come in the name "drone." These aircraft are NOT "drones." They do not perform menial labor and they are not "thoughtless." They do not perform automated attacks. These are units of force projection that the U.S. military uses as part of a psychological warfare campaign against citizens that it deems to be a threat (or, in other words, pretty much the entire planet).

I'm glad we can argue semantics while the world burns.

Actually, the world isn't burning. Everyone should be glad if we're talking about a wedding party bombed as a single, rare incident - if the same pilots were doing proper bombardment instead of those drones, as in previous wars, then we'd have a bunch of wedding parties killed every day and they'd be invisible in the total casualty list of a major city firebombing or napalming of a few villages.

The 'world burning' today is ten times less of actual burning than in, say, US actions in Vietnam or Korea, and hundred times less than ww1/ww2 - I'm glad that the scale of suffering is shrinking so much.

Re: If a Drone Strike Hit an American Wedding We'd Ground Our Fleet

#340

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know what? Yes. I do. Arrest them, try them, when they reach US soil and pose a risk to the security of the US. Until then, they aren't your problem.

The funny thing is that this has been done before, but as there is not enough evidence to try them, they are locked up in Guantanamo indefinitely. I guess drone strikes are just a cheaper solution for that problem, with less outrage than prison camps.

We have a shorter word for 'not enough evidence to try them', it's called 'innocent' or 'not guilty'.
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