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U.S. drone strike kills 30 pine nut farm workers in Afghanistan

reuters.com

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Re: U.S. drone strike kills 30 pine nut farm workers in Afghanistan

#151

Post by timoth »

onetimemanytime wrote: post #81
stevenjohns wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No it's not. These types of comments are extremely inappropriate. Your comment tries to suggest that: 1. Terrorists are people with legitimate grievances 2. Terrorists are representatives of oppressed people 3. Terrorists have genuine reasons for their actions All of these things are false. People do not turn into international, careless murderers just because they experience travesty. Terrorists exploit this concept…

labels aside, if x state drops a bomb and kills your 4 year old playing outside you will want revenge, if you're from those areas. Simple as that, call it whatever you want. You killed my son for no reason... USA should better rush with million dollar offers to families, along with apologies, of course.

Reminds me of this story of the British paying "blood money" in Iraq which I found quite illuminating at the time: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/jul/02/iraq.features1...

Re: U.S. drone strike kills 30 pine nut farm workers in Afghanistan

#152

Post by dkraft »

zupzupzup wrote: post #112
wruza wrote: post #2

Now imagine “U.S. drone strike kills 30 pine nut farm workers in France” and feel the difference (which is non-existent). Then it goes on tv and reads the list of this morning’s evil men who must be stopped.

All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.

Right. It all depends on who believes the fake news.

Re: U.S. drone strike kills 30 pine nut farm workers in Afghanistan

#153

Post by latch »

lopmotr wrote: post #136
alpb wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is how you create terrorists. Um no, you are wrong. _What USA does_ is terrorism. When you drop bombs on people out of nowhere, that's called terrorism. Sorry if you're an American but you've got some learning to do about the biggest terrorist organization in the world before calling others a terrorist. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRbnPA3fd5U

It sounds like you judge people by the consequences of their actions rather than their intentions. I tend to agree with that way of thinking but many people do the opposite and believe intentions are the morally superior way of judging good and bad. The trouble with judging by actions is it makes everybody bad, including the judge! I suspect that's why people don't like it. Since nearly everyone believes their own in…

When it comes to this, taking intent on faith isn't good enough. Vietnam, a possible war of aggression in Iraq, illegal drone strikes in Pakistan, public threats and shows of force - the stick isn't subtle and I think it's fair to question whether it's measured (and what it means if it isn't).

I actually think I'm right of center on this issue in general, I just wish we called it as it is.

Re: U.S. drone strike kills 30 pine nut farm workers in Afghanistan

#154

Post by zxcvbn4038 »

Notice the wording - the drone targeted the workers. The drone didn’t make a decision and target the workers, the drone pilot targeted the workers, and whomever was standing behind them gave the order to launch the missle. The whole “I’m just doing what the computer said” defense only works in movies.

Re: U.S. drone strike kills 30 pine nut farm workers in Afghanistan

#155

Post by otikik »

King-Aaron wrote: post #109
alpb wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is how you create terrorists. Um no, you are wrong. _What USA does_ is terrorism. When you drop bombs on people out of nowhere, that's called terrorism. Sorry if you're an American but you've got some learning to do about the biggest terrorist organization in the world before calling others a terrorist. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRbnPA3fd5U

This is such an inane counter-argument.

I ... kind of see the point. Do you have a more substantial counter argument?

Re: U.S. drone strike kills 30 pine nut farm workers in Afghanistan

#156

Post by yakshaving_jgt »

misja wrote: post #138
yakshaving_jgt wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> When you drop bombs on people out of nowhere, that's called terrorism Only if the motive for dropping those bombs is to advance a political/ideological agenda. We need to be very clear that "terrorism" has a very specific meaning. It's not just a group or individual who terrorises.

Genuine question: if the motivation for this bombing was not political or ideological, what was it then?

It was an accident.

Re: U.S. drone strike kills 30 pine nut farm workers in Afghanistan

#157

Post by yakshaving_jgt »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #133
yakshaving_jgt wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By that logic, you could describe WWII as just a bunch of terrorists who disagreed. Which of course, nobody does.

Except that to some extent, they do. When my country was occupied by the Nazi Germany, people who fought back were called freedom fighters by us. They were called terrorists by the Nazis.

Sure, but I don't think that extent is useful for the purposes of this discussion.

FWIW, you and I are likely from the same country.

Re: U.S. drone strike kills 30 pine nut farm workers in Afghanistan

#158

Post by rob74 »

whiddershins wrote: post #126
wruza wrote: post #2

Now imagine “U.S. drone strike kills 30 pine nut farm workers in France” and feel the difference (which is non-existent). Then it goes on tv and reads the list of this morning’s evil men who must be stopped.

Now imagine “France knowingly harbors 911 terrorists.” “French leaders take credit for car bombing which kills 23 civilians.” There’s a historical reason for this discrepancy.

That's still no excuse to indiscriminately kill civilians - unless you deliberately want to increase the support for the terrorists...

Re: U.S. drone strike kills 30 pine nut farm workers in Afghanistan

#159

Post by lm28469 »

whiddershins wrote: post #122
alpb wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is how you create terrorists. Um no, you are wrong. _What USA does_ is terrorism. When you drop bombs on people out of nowhere, that's called terrorism. Sorry if you're an American but you've got some learning to do about the biggest terrorist organization in the world before calling others a terrorist. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRbnPA3fd5U

Just stop. Absolutely stop equating these things. The world as we know it, the progress in art, science, and humanities. The cures for polio, infant mortality and poverty dropping. The website you are currently using to spread poison. Those are all “_What USA does_” Cut it out with this evil language.

I mean, the US are not even 250 years old and built by immigrants. The rest of the world didn't wait for them for science, medicine, art and philosophy. From a social standpoint they're still 20-30 years behind most EU countries for example.

I think most americans fail to recognise how much propaganda they're constantly fed about how great the US are. From the outside it almost looks like a parody, especially since Trump is in the office. Example: https://www.vox.com/2014/6/16/5814270/the-successful-70-year...

Re: U.S. drone strike kills 30 pine nut farm workers in Afghanistan

#160

Post by igravious »

lopmotr wrote: post #136
alpb wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is how you create terrorists. Um no, you are wrong. _What USA does_ is terrorism. When you drop bombs on people out of nowhere, that's called terrorism. Sorry if you're an American but you've got some learning to do about the biggest terrorist organization in the world before calling others a terrorist. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRbnPA3fd5U

It sounds like you judge people by the consequences of their actions rather than their intentions. I tend to agree with that way of thinking but many people do the opposite and believe intentions are the morally superior way of judging good and bad. The trouble with judging by actions is it makes everybody bad, including the judge! I suspect that's why people don't like it. Since nearly everyone believes their own in…

That's a fine and dandy distinction until it's not.

If you keep punching me in the face while claiming it was your intention to punch someone else I'm going to come to the conclusion sooner rather than later that you're lying or stupid or incompetent – either way I'm going to do something about it rather than continue to let you punch me in the face.

Is it too much to ask that a lot more effort be expended in not mowing down innocent civilians while prosecuting the so-called global-war-on-terror?

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