Posted on 01/01/2014 2:29:20 PM PST by Foundahardheadedwoman
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I worked on the US drone program. The public should know what really goes on Few of the politicians who so brazenly proclaim the benefits of drones have a real clue how it actually works (and doesn't)
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Anonymous woman on grey Heather Linebaugh theguardian.com, Sunday 29 December 2013 07.30 EST Jump to comments (2811)
Hermes 450 drone An Elbit Systems Hermes 450 drone. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
Whenever I read comments by politicians defending the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Predator and Reaper program aka drones I wish I could ask them a few questions. I'd start with: "How many women and children have you seen incinerated by a Hellfire missile?" And: "How many men have you seen crawl across a field, trying to make it to the nearest compound for help while bleeding out from severed legs?" Or even more pointedly: "How many soldiers have you seen die on the side of a road in Afghanistan because our ever-so-accurate UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles] were unable to detect an IED [improvised explosive device] that awaited their convoy?"
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
Hey lady! (think Jerry Lewis) shaddup! We rigged up Sheridan light tanks for airdrop. They were designed to break things, mostly humans. War’s hell. Get some!
If people don't like drone strikes into Pakistan, blame the user not the technology.
Drones used on a foreign battlefield and/or against a foreign enemy are one thing.
Government Drones used domestically against peaceful, law abiding Americans are another.
Here is where we are heading:
“Show me the man, and I’ll show you the crime.”
— Lavrentiy Beria (Head of Joseph Stalin’s secret police in the USSR)
“The decision to wage war should be the hardest thing a US president ever has to do.”
It is, IF you are a Republican.
If you are a Democrat, you can kill as many damn people as you want, in any matter you want to, and the US Sheeple will NEVER see the images on their TV screens.
Why are we killing Afghanis? Its certainly not to benefit the American people.
Nothing is ever said about the government bombing business with high taxes and unreasonable laws. How about canceled vacations because government caused high gas prices and other expenses?
All civilian casualties are to be laid directly at the feet of the terrorists! That is the reason the Geneva Convention requires uniforms!!!! They are illegal combatants, spies and saboteurs and should be treated as such. Don’t blame the U.S. or sensor limitations; blame the fact that the enemy is cowardly not wearing uniforms.
On a separate note: I don’t think she was a UAV operator or sensor operator. No real drone type information and all left wing talking points with a little graphic drama thrown in.
She saw guerrillas die — big deal.
She’s not cut out for this.
Compared to ww2 infantry —or infantry at ANY time her job is a cake-walk.
She sleeps with her hubby or bf and shops in Vegas.
I understand all the arguments on the pro drone side. I have no issue with the use of drones as a recon/intel aid, or the use of a drone with Hellfires as air support for a rifle company engaged in a fire fight. My problem with drone warfare as we practice it 90% of the time has become nothing more than “Whack-a-Mole”.
The author is alluding to the Predator drones (UAVs). They are flown by qualified combat pilots that know how to make instant life and death decisions. Drone losses do not produce American casualties, what the enemy perceives as our weakness. That is why they hate them so much. That and they are very effective in waiting until the terrorist shows himself.
I agree with you. This publication may be leftist trash, and the author may be a libtard, but your point is spot on: Unmanned warfare makes it too damned easy to kill, and Obastard is proving why war should be difficult and painful. Nothing is more dangerous than a deadly weapon in the hands of a child. There was an episode of the original Star Trek about this.
If we had a government run by angels, we wouldnt need that silly old Bill of Rights.
The president who won a preemptive Nobel Peace Prize now cannot promise he won’t kill Americans on American soil via drone stikes.
I am looking for a refund on all the comments I have paid to make over the past almost 11 years.
Your check is in the mail, Guy.
It's already easy for a president to kill: the vast resources he has at his disposal mean that he could kill millions if he wished. I do not agree with your premise that "war should be difficult and painful." Nothing short of sending his own child to war will make war difficult and painful for a president. For those of us who are sending loved ones into battle, it's already difficult and painful enough, thank you, and I object to the notion that we should have to bear more just to avoid tweaking someone's delicate conscience.
Of course drones are weapons. That’s why we don’t want them in the US.
No. I don’t want to pay taxes on them. I showed them as business expenses.
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