We’re not the “good guys”: American drone warfare is terrorizing the Middle East • Hacker News Board

Re: We’re not the “good guys”: American drone warfare is terrorizing the Middle East

#21

Post by Blackthorn » Tue, Apr 26, 2016, 8:16 PM UTC

jeremyt wrote: post #9

Blackthorn wrote: post #4

I've made the claim in the past on, for example, my FB feed that American drone strikes are literally terrorism and should be treated no differently than (for example) the Brussels attacks. This has resulted in more than a few hurt feelings but honestly I cannot see a difference. I am American.

You can't see any difference between an attack in an extremely public place that indiscriminately targets civilians in an effort to kill as many people as possible and targeted attacks on specific targets with sometimes unfortunate and unavoidable collateral damage?

I'd have agreed with you completely on that if it wasn't for the drone strike on the wedding. Once that happened I could no longer call these strikes specifically targeted attacks.

Re: We’re not the “good guys”: American drone warfare is terrorizing the Middle East

#22

Post by fweespee_ch » Tue, Apr 26, 2016, 8:16 PM UTC

Blackthorn wrote: post #4

I've made the claim in the past on, for example, my FB feed that American drone strikes are literally terrorism and should be treated no differently than (for example) the Brussels attacks. This has resulted in more than a few hurt feelings but honestly I cannot see a difference. I am American.

Employed properly, drone strikes against legitimate targets [e.g. Military bases, arms shipments] are perfectly reasonable and effective.

Really the only problem we have is the fact the US keeps using it as a tool of assassination which results in too much collateral damage:

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/nov/24/-sp-us-drone-...

Re: We’re not the “good guys”: American drone warfare is terrorizing the Middle East

#23

Post by clavalle » Tue, Apr 26, 2016, 8:16 PM UTC

hellbanner wrote: post #11

Blackthorn wrote: post #4

I've made the claim in the past on, for example, my FB feed that American drone strikes are literally terrorism and should be treated no differently than (for example) the Brussels attacks. This has resulted in more than a few hurt feelings but honestly I cannot see a difference. I am American.

Thank you for doing this! It might help in your campaign to compare "terrorism" as the US media puts it, and George Bush's "Shock & Awe" campaign -- designed to intimidate and scare their enemy for a political purpose :) That and the Bush's family relations with the Bin Laden family in the decades past.

"political purpose" in this case meaning deterring people from attacking us.

I'm no fan of how Bush handled things but painting flying airliners filled with civilians into skyscrapers filled with civilians and hitting government and infrastructure targets after publicly declaring war with the same brush is ridiculous.

Re: We’re not the “good guys”: American drone warfare is terrorizing the Middle East

#24

Post by jeremyt » Tue, Apr 26, 2016, 8:17 PM UTC

the-dude wrote: post #12

jeremyt wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't see any difference between an attack in an extremely public place that indiscriminately targets civilians in an effort to kill as many people as possible and targeted attacks on specific targets with sometimes unfortunate and unavoidable collateral damage?

I do not see why intention matters.

A scientist attempting to find a cure for cancer accidentally mixes up some chemicals and causes a huge explosion which results in 1000 deaths. Alternately, a terrorist sets off a bomb in a public place killing 1000 people.

Should they each be charged with the same crime and receive the same punishment?

Re: We’re not the “good guys”: American drone warfare is terrorizing the Middle East

#25

Post by thesimpsons1022 » Tue, Apr 26, 2016, 8:17 PM UTC

the-dude wrote: post #12

jeremyt wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't see any difference between an attack in an extremely public place that indiscriminately targets civilians in an effort to kill as many people as possible and targeted attacks on specific targets with sometimes unfortunate and unavoidable collateral damage?

I do not see why intention matters.

intention is all that matters.

Re: We’re not the “good guys”: American drone warfare is terrorizing the Middle East

#26

Post by wfunction » Tue, Apr 26, 2016, 8:17 PM UTC

jeremyt wrote: post #9

Blackthorn wrote: post #4

I've made the claim in the past on, for example, my FB feed that American drone strikes are literally terrorism and should be treated no differently than (for example) the Brussels attacks. This has resulted in more than a few hurt feelings but honestly I cannot see a difference. I am American.

You can't see any difference between an attack in an extremely public place that indiscriminately targets civilians in an effort to kill as many people as possible and targeted attacks on specific targets with sometimes unfortunate and unavoidable collateral damage?

That's like saying "you can't see any difference between killing 10 people and killing 100 people"? Uh, sure I do, but doesn't mean that necessarily means you have to treat them differently. There are a practically infinite number of variations on how murder can be done but they're all murder. And in our case, they're all terrorism. Doesn't mean you need an infinite number of consequences for them.

Re: We’re not the “good guys”: American drone warfare is terrorizing the Middle East

#27

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Apr 26, 2016, 8:17 PM UTC

jeremyt wrote: post #9

Blackthorn wrote: post #4

I've made the claim in the past on, for example, my FB feed that American drone strikes are literally terrorism and should be treated no differently than (for example) the Brussels attacks. This has resulted in more than a few hurt feelings but honestly I cannot see a difference. I am American.

You can't see any difference between an attack in an extremely public place that indiscriminately targets civilians in an effort to kill as many people as possible and targeted attacks on specific targets with sometimes unfortunate and unavoidable collateral damage?

[deleted]

Re: We’re not the “good guys”: American drone warfare is terrorizing the Middle East

#28

Post by throwaway4728 » Tue, Apr 26, 2016, 8:17 PM UTC

Dumb political topic, inflammatory headline, link to Salon. (Though I suppose the third implies the first two.)

I know the right answer is "flag and move on", which I mostly do with these types of articles, but jeez. This has been happening a lot recently. The HN front page has seriously gotten a lot worse just over the past few months.

Re: We’re not the “good guys”: American drone warfare is terrorizing the Middle East

#29

Post by user10001 » Tue, Apr 26, 2016, 8:17 PM UTC

hellbanner wrote: post #7

user10001 wrote: post #3

Islamic militants coming from Russia are terrorizing the Middle East. On the one hand, Putin is pretending to fight ISIS in Syria. On the other hand, he is shaking hands with ISIS sympathizer Kadyrov.

Maybe you were trying to discuss other geo-politikal issues but I don't see this as relating to the USA's drone warware at hand.

Apparently even this site is populated with Putin's little henchmen.

Re: We’re not the “good guys”: American drone warfare is terrorizing the Middle East

#30

Post by the-dude » Tue, Apr 26, 2016, 8:18 PM UTC

strictnein wrote: post #16

the-dude wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do not see why intention matters.

Motive is important in how we judge almost everything in life. Why would this be any different?

Is that so? I am not sure. Also this leads to 'I hit you because I love you' excuses.

And that is all they are, excuses.