Greenwald writes: "So medals would be awarded for sitting safely ensconced in a bunker on US soil and launching bombs with a video joystick at human beings thousands of miles away."
These pilots are not in the cockpit, but an underground bunker thousands of miles away from their target. (photo: USAF)
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The drone program is just about the ultimate in terror: a big, powerful country uses advanced technology to bump off and rub out people without warning and with total physical immunity.
Despite what these pilots may say, they really are just playing video games. The gore and stench of real casualties can never reach them.
I'm ashamed that my country has been the innovator of this new kind of warfare, the antithesis of the citizen/patriot warrior who is willing to risk all for the principles of liberty and justice. I'm sick of paying taxes that support this kind of ethical disease and want it stopped.
As for all the people who decry the fact that technology removes the person from being close to the horrors of war, the same comment has been made throughout history.
First we fought with our hands and had to kill that way (up close). then we used tools that killed instead of our hands (still close), then we started to throw things like rocks and spears (how cowardly of them). Then someone invented the bow and we could kill from long distance without the enemy knowing you were close (not too fair). Then those using bows complained about those using guns which fired at a longer range. How about the people who rode horses and ran over people (like that took courage). Then of course we can jump to ship warfare and then how about those who use tanks against infranty? How about planes dropping bombs?
So just admit that you don't know what you are talking about. Man has forever been finding ways to kill each other and we will continue.
Again, just like lib women who say men don't have the right to talk about abortion, people who have never been in combat don't have the right to talk about war.
The only slight ethical problem here is that it's not war at all. It is simply butchery of people on the other side of the world, who not only are almost all civilians, and not only are citize3ns of countries with which the United States is not officially at war, but are entirely unable to fight back. When both sides had longbows, there was risk to each. Even with tanks against infantry, there is the possibility of getting a grenade through the gun port. And in all cases, the battlefield warrior has chosen to go to the battlefield (if not drafted). But the greatest innovation of 20th century warfare is the deliberate targeting of civilians in order to "break the spirit" of the country being attacked. (This, by the way, is not only a war crime but a crime against humanity, according to the treaties the U.S. has signed and ratified, thus under the constitution the highest law of the land.) In World War I, unanimously considered one of the most brutalizing experiences in history, approximately 25 per cent of the casualties were civilians. Now, according to SIPRI, it is closer to 90 or even 95 per cent. Civilians are not choosing to put themselves at risk, as honorable countries' soldiers are. (continued)
Do you mean WW2 when you put WW1? I will just assume it is a typo, but if not you are wrong.
As to "just who is killing and wounding all of our people," the people you speak of are *invaders* and *occupiers* of their country, in violation of international law.
Finally, the statement that the victims of the drones have chosen to fight us is ludicrous. Awlaki's 16 year old son, looking for his father, whom we had murdered without charges, was likewise murdered by our drones, for the crime of having been born into the wrong family. And are the 5-year-olds choosing sides?
You should check out the video produced by the Ron Paul campaign regarding a make-believe scenario of China or some other super power invading the U.S. It is an eye opener.
So after 9-11 we went after them where they were, afghanistan. Nothing illegal about that at all. Also, it is not just US forces that are there and we are there at the request of the current afghan govt so we are not "invaders" or "occupiers".
Regarding innocents being killed in war. It is truly a sad thing but impossible to stop. If a person chooses to make war on someone else then it is they who are respondsible for the loss of life, especially if they stay around innocents. Or do such things as hide in churchs, mosques, hospitals etc.
You can rant all you want about illegal war but the simple fact is that it is not.
Blasting five year old children to bits, scattering their entrails upon the ground, is not honorable combat. Doing so from a comfortable chair in an office cubicle half a world away is the very epitome of cowardice, and the triggermen as well as the Global Godfather who spends his Tuesday afternoons deciding who to kill should be facing execution or life in prison as war criminals, not being considered for medals.
Such a sad case of blinkered perspective and denial of the fact that we are supposed have evolved in all ways, as we tend to call ourselves "Civilized".
And you appear to have glossed over, or forgotten the plain, undeniable fact that -let's say- 95% of the Dinwits/Cheney administration never served a minute in combat or the military! But by Gawd, they did a lot of shouting, bluffing, lying, skullduggery and sending of so many thousands of young people off to death, disability or madness and suicide, not to mention destruction of two counties and their peoples they didn't even begin to comprehend, one of the cradles of "civilization" and the historical artifacts that recorded this. Well now, did THEY know what they were talking about? Was THAT OK with you.
Perhaps YOU should attempt to keep "it" shut and open other orifices that facilitate hearing whilst trying to develop the mechanism which turns what you hear into reasoning abilities. Most of us have these inherent appendages and cortexes, no matter how apparently deeply buried they might appear to be,
Attacking Iraq and AF was approved by congress so I am fine with that, it was legal. Finally, how many in the Obama Admin have ever served in combat or the military? Is he not the one who has the "kill" list? In fact, that is the first known case of a president having a "kill" list. Nixon had an "enemies" list but he didn't have them killed.
so again, unless you have been in combat, keep it shut cause you have not earned the right to talk about what happens in combat. BTW, combat is a dirty, evil, hateful thing that should not ever happen, but it does.
I rest my case.
"Get over it" is just another way of say "Accept the status quo lie down and let it roll over you".
Any other tools of acceptance and conformity you'd like to share?
Pretty poor
You can rest your case because you don't have one.
Science fiction at its finest.
You can bet at some point there will be a leveling of the playing field and all nations will be using this technology!
It detaches the joy stick operator from reality and makes it more like a video game, making it easier to kill because no one appears real!
and hell.
Killing with a sniper rifle is cowardly as well. But the argument could be made that any killing is cowardly. Fear inspires our acts of aggression and violence. We are frightened little children. So I guess that is why we kill.
Still feeling fuzzy?
Make no mistake about it, after the economic crisis has subsided one constant will remain: The rich will have entered it rich and will emerge rich. Only the working class will have suffered job loss, foreclosure, denial of access to quality health care, insecurity in retirement, and dashed dreams they one held for their children.
Harold Ford and his neoliberal, sociopathic bunkmates are, in good old street parlance, punks!
I'm underwhelmed. No, these stick-jockey slaughterers do NOT deserve a medal for making a game of death and destruction.
This is one of the reasons I'm deeply ashamed and embarrassed to call myself an American. [The other reasons involve the fact that Dumbya and Dickie and their lying criminal cohorts have never been put on trial for their war crimes and ordering torture, as well as lying more times than any of us can count.]
A HERO, you soulless crap-skull, is somebody who risks life, limb and/or fortune and reputation to make the world a better, safer place for others.
The whole concept of the drone is cowardly and immoral beyond imagination. To hell with whoever came up with such an invention -- and with those in the current administration who put this nightmare in motion -- ESPECIALLY those!
We cannot do this to others and expect protection for ourselves.
Why is there no elected official in the US who is taking a stand against drone murder. We all know that drone terrorism is just getting started. In 10 years, if things keep going as they now are, the US will be killing people all over the world, and even inside the US. Mexico will be a huge drone terrorism zone, as the US develops Mexico into a drug empire just like Afghanistan.
So America's new fighter jocks will be fat-butted armchair riders. The swagger will be replaced by the waddle.
And America will cheer...
Now that is what sickens me!
I always thought that medals were awarded for conspicuous bravery in the face of an enemy, as in putting one's self in harms way (and mostly for a mate or fellow-combatan t). So how can you equate these joystick jockeys with that?
WW11 pilot's especially come to mind as they had to fly well within' the range of screens of flak, sustaining huge losses, not to mention "Sappers", or ground artillery who, after a relatively brief training, often fought at bayonet-point if they survived the original charge to that location.
I could shit myself just thinking about it !
Time to end the endless wars and the egregious torture.
Although so many of the 99% are wrongfully disenfranchised now, and election fraud abounds in Vote Death by Diebold, it still doesn't hurt to have an election year logo.
Based in large part on our new 'slaughter 'em via droning' m.o., my 'Time for Real McCoy Change' 2012 logo is:
NO 'RAW MONEY' and NO BOMB AH !
Does the entire AF history of bombing from the air and straffing also make you want to vomit MSgt?
Another upside-down mega-crap on reason!
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