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US military increasingly using drone missile with flying blades in Syria

theguardian.com

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Re: US military increasingly using drone missile with flying blades in Syria

#51

Post by wongarsu »

Nightshaxx wrote: post #18
x86_64Ubuntu wrote: post #2

I'm kind of over the whole "Look, we killed someone far, far, far away for dubious reasons with NEW technology" articles. These folks halfway across the world aren't bothering, nor do they actually threaten my freedom in any way shape or form.

While we can debate the level to which America needs to get involved, are you forgetting 911 or any of the other terrorist attacks? It honestly feels downright insulting to the victims of terrorism that you would imply these extremist groups do not threaten your freedom. The article specifically references that these devices used on members of aal-Qaida; the group responsible for 911.

The war on terror has killed easily three orders of magnitude more people than 9/11, and antagonizes the US with the regional population.

It's neither proportional nor effective.

Re: US military increasingly using drone missile with flying blades in Syria

#52

Post by nine_k »

wongarsu wrote: post #15
t413 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, the headline seems to imply it’s some new ‘big bad’ where the article just slowly exposes that it’s a non-explosive missile. Killing fewer people by not combusting the surrounding area sounds like an improvement.

Extrajudicial targeted assassinations are pretty far on the bad side, no matter how few other people get killed in the process. Sure, if you are doing it, killing fewer bystanders is preferable on the surface. But if individual assassinations are less likely to cause an international outcry since fewer people died that likely leads to more assassinations.

Isn't the US is, like, at war in Syria?

Wars being a terrible thing and all, one won't expect a speedy and fair trial on a battlefield.

Re: US military increasingly using drone missile with flying blades in Syria

#53

Post by 3131s »

rayiner wrote: post #42
x86_64Ubuntu wrote: post #2

I'm kind of over the whole "Look, we killed someone far, far, far away for dubious reasons with NEW technology" articles. These folks halfway across the world aren't bothering, nor do they actually threaten my freedom in any way shape or form.

They’re certainly bothering people and threatening peoples’ freedom. Thanks to the export of fundamentalist Islam from certain countries, my home country of Bangladesh is a more dangerous place today then when we left 30 years ago. (And it was under a military dictatorship then!) Unsurprisingly, we take harsh measures to crack down on fundamentalism, including banning Islamist parties and executing terrorists: https:…

They’re certainly bothering people and threatening peoples’ freedom.

All of them? What percentage of the dead were terrorists? Because "they" in this case is referring to around 1 million people now.

Re: US military increasingly using drone missile with flying blades in Syria

#54

Post by bregma »

I guess like depleted uranium bullets is a useful way to re-purpose a byproduct of nuclear weapons production, flinging blades at an enemy is a good way to re-purpose decommissioned servers. I can only imagine the military uses for all the severed cable ties.

Re: US military increasingly using drone missile with flying blades in Syria

#55

Post by duxup »

fuoqi wrote: post #32

It's interesting how public has forgotten that ISIS is no longer any different from your usual terrorist organization with cellular structure, which is actively eradicated by both Syrian government and Kurds. So what mandate US forces have in Syria for their military activity? Not only they occupy some strategic land (Al-Tanf), but also actively kill military forces of the internationally recognized government (you c…

I wonder what the relevance of a government is if they're internationally recognized, but don't actually control their own territory.

Who operates where and does what has always been more fluid than just 'well they're internationally recognized'.

Re: US military increasingly using drone missile with flying blades in Syria

#56

Post by departure »

rayiner wrote: post #42
x86_64Ubuntu wrote: post #2

I'm kind of over the whole "Look, we killed someone far, far, far away for dubious reasons with NEW technology" articles. These folks halfway across the world aren't bothering, nor do they actually threaten my freedom in any way shape or form.

They’re certainly bothering people and threatening peoples’ freedom. Thanks to the export of fundamentalist Islam from certain countries, my home country of Bangladesh is a more dangerous place today then when we left 30 years ago. (And it was under a military dictatorship then!) Unsurprisingly, we take harsh measures to crack down on fundamentalism, including banning Islamist parties and executing terrorists: https:…

> Thanks to the export of fundamentalist Islam from certain countries,

Yes Saudi Arabia which we continue to sell weapons to and blindly support. This administration is even more willing to bend to SA, as seen with Trump's visit and subsequent veto the bipartiston resolution to end US military assistance in Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen.

> while America has been fortunate to be spared from a major terrorist attack since 9/11

That is untrue. The Orlando shooting was absolutely driven by islamic fundamentalism, as was the 2015 Chattanooga and San Bernardino attacks and arguably the Boston Marathon Bombings.

Re: US military increasingly using drone missile with flying blades in Syria

#57

Post by jimbob45 »

x86_64Ubuntu wrote: post #2

I'm kind of over the whole "Look, we killed someone far, far, far away for dubious reasons with NEW technology" articles. These folks halfway across the world aren't bothering, nor do they actually threaten my freedom in any way shape or form.

That same argument could have been used to justify staying out of WW2. Even if Hitler was guaranteed to stay out of US affairs post-war, the fact remains that joining sooner would have resulted in millions of Europeans keeping their lives.

Same here. Prematurely joining conflicts now allows us to save scores of lives abroad (at least in theory).

Re: US military increasingly using drone missile with flying blades in Syria

#58

Post by renewiltord »

Pfhreak wrote: post #7
hirundo wrote: post #5

How long until the US is subject to this kind of targeted assassination? It doesn't seem that this tech is so inaccessible to state actors with billions to invest. There are sufficient such enemies. Is the Secret Service really confident that it can protect its charges from this kind of attack? I think they'll find that a drone missile can also be a boomerang. EDIT: The objections to this scenario are taking it more…

Imperialism and extrajudicial killing is only bad when other people do it, obviously. /s

There is no _bad_ on this scale. There is only "aligned with our objectives" and "not aligned with our objectives". And we short-hand the latter with "bad" and the former with "good" to create the propaganda association of ethics. So yes, I would gladly repeat your comment unironically.

I think this is sound. Pax Americana is part of the foundation for massive human progress. It has led to a Golden Age the like of which has never been seen before.

Re: US military increasingly using drone missile with flying blades in Syria

#59

Post by SubiculumCode »

wongarsu wrote: post #46
throwaway0a5e wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's more along the lines of you can hit a car or a meeting without decimating everything nearby. It's the difference between sending an assassin and a suicide bomber.

But usually we despise both suicide bombers and assassins, not congratulate the assassin on killing so few bystanders. The question by GP is more along the line of "what if instead of spending lots of money to kill fewer bystanders we spent that money to reduce the number of people that are so dangerous to us that we kill them". Of course we know that won't happen because building weapons helps US companies and build…

Usually because it costs more to do so. Many times the local governments are corrupt, and U.S. money gets funneled to terrorist organizations or just pocketed, never actually helping the populace have better lives..

Re: US military increasingly using drone missile with flying blades in Syria

#60

Post by superkuh »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #24
hirundo wrote: post #5

How long until the US is subject to this kind of targeted assassination? It doesn't seem that this tech is so inaccessible to state actors with billions to invest. There are sufficient such enemies. Is the Secret Service really confident that it can protect its charges from this kind of attack? I think they'll find that a drone missile can also be a boomerang. EDIT: The objections to this scenario are taking it more…

> until the US is subject to this kind of targeted assassination? I suppose this depends on one's definition of "this kind." The R9X is deployed from a massive drone platform. Using it on our homeland requires air superiority around the target. That's not, in the near term, a significant risk.

Technically the US has already, over two subsequent administrations intentionally and with a handful of discrete attacks, gone after and killed a father, his US citizen son (a minor), and US citizen daughter (a minor) in a series of targeted missile and commando strikes. It was done outside US soil but it was at least one targeted killings of US citizen kid. The daughter may have been accidental since her assassination was a commando raid and not two seperate drone strikes like they used to get the son.

1. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/10/how-tea...

2. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/feb/01/yemen-strike-e...

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