There are plenty of worthwhile things media could try to tell us about U.S. drone wars. But does the world need another uncritical piece about the difficult life of a drone pilot?
Apparently someone at the New York Times thought so, and so readers get a story (7/30/12) headlined “A Day Job Waiting for a Kill Shot a World Away.” Reporter Elisabeth Bumiller (perhaps best known for a testy C-SPAN appearance where she explained that New York Times reporters “can’t just say the president is lying“) gives us a glimpse into the struggles of the pilots who spend hours–even days–tracking a target before pulling the trigger.
When the call comes for him to fire a missile and kill a militant–and only, Colonel Brenton said, when the women and children are not around–the hair on the back of his neck stands up, just as it did when he used to line up targets in his F-16 fighter jet.
Afterward, just like the old days, he compartmentalizes. “I feel no emotional attachment to the enemy,” he said. “I have a duty, and I execute the duty.”
As Bumiller puts it, “Drones are not only revolutionizing American warfare but are also changing in profound ways the lives of the people who fly them.” To say nothing of the people on the other end of the drone war.
Much of the piece is about fighting a war from a “padded seat in American suburbia,” and how strange this can be for pilots with traditional combat experience. We’ve been here before with corporate media, most notably in a 2009 60 Minutes segment. And Newsweek had a major drone piece last year that, like many others, sidesteps many of the key legal questions about the expansion of the drone war.
The Times wasn’t after any of that, it would seem, since Bumiller’s piece doesn’t touch on any of these issues, preferring instead to focus on the potential harm done to the pilots pulling the trigger. But by their own account, there’s not much impact:
Of a dozen pilots, sensor operators and supporting intelligence analysts recently interviewed from three American military bases, none acknowledged the kind of personal feelings for Afghans that would keep them awake at night after seeing the bloodshed left by missiles and bombs.
Good to know that the people launching drone strikes that have killed hundreds of civilians aren’t losing any sleep over it.
Roasting ragheads from half a world away
Be all that you can be
I was enraged at the prospect of more innocents being killed in the Iraq invasion.
I had the thought that if Iraqi scalps could be imported they could be worn around all those who held themselves as superior and clean in their support of technological devastation of families. Then if they could confront the most disgusting trophies of war along with their own indifference to the fate of other real human beings, there might be a change in sentiment in these ideologically and racially perverse celebrants of war.
I wonder who would come to see a mountain of a million Iraqi scalps and would they celebrate from their inner primitive or be ashamed at what they had become accomplice to?
For some of us who came of political age/awareness back in the late 50s/early 60s, it’s sickeningly ironic to see this sort of thing happening when this was always the type of thing that we were told that those cruel, heartless, atheistic Communists were doing – – – just bombing countries into submission without any compassion. Now we’re through the looking glass and guess what Alice, WE’RE the ugly reflection in the mirror.
There is an old—and I mean old—Doonesbury strip in which a Cambodian living in a USAF-made bomb crater dramatically shouts at the bomber aircraft overhead, challenging the crew to think about the lives they are destroying, saying he hopes that what they are doing to his country will haunt them, etc. The last frame of course is the interior of the B-52 cockpit, where the oblivious pilot and co-pilot are placidly discussing football, dinner plans, or whatever as they jet back to their base.
If this country has achieved nothing else in 40 years, at least we have managed to refine this situation to its essence.
Seriously, this is the 50’s and 60’s all over again; Cambodia and the Carpet Bombing, the “we had to destroy it to save it mentality”, coupled with the “We were only following orders”.
No, we have learned nothing. At least not in the stupid department. We set our goal on conquering the world, we tried to emulate Britain and the Empire of Victoria, and we have lost it. Orwell was right, the date of 1984 was not the start of Big Brother or Insoc. And further he was total correct in calling the “people who want power, for powers sake”.
We have our continuous war, we told about it back when the first started it. The war has become the way the dispose of materials and people, and destroy the excess the factors create. We are told in the media how we ‘are doing better than our forefather and should very thankful that the rich have left us under the dock.
This is the just the continuation of the Vietnam War, in another place and another time. And this time we have been there as long the first one.
The real irony is that of the new Capt America being placed in Afghanistan, and it’s essential he who is now the red skull; fighting for the bad guys, even though he never changed sides.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-drones-bases-20120729,0,3409139.story
There’s a mini-epidemic of these stories.
These are criminal and immoral acts on the part of the U.S.
Any of you know anyone with PTSD from combat?
Nobody cares much.
PTSD stinks.
War is awful and if our country is at war, we are all equally responsible, not just the politicians or military.
Each and everyone of us.
So, I’m thankful if these pilots aren’t haunted by the thought of the death and destruction caused by War.
Unless of course we All Are Equally Haunted.
And why?
Cause warriors with PTSD die a bit every day. They “see,” ” hear,” “smell,” and “feel” it at night while this author is resting comfortably judging them.
I hate war. The cost is too high.
But the responsibility lies with us all, even those of us who hate it most.
This is so awful, that war has turned into a video game. I suppose that it’s easy for them to think of the figures on the ground below as part of a game; no blood, no guts , no connection. Then they can go home and eat dinner with their family as if no one died; that’s creepy.
I saw an old Star Trek show, where war had evolved so that no bombs were needed at all. The game board showed where the city had been hit if there had been real bombs, and the citizens in that quadrant walked into the vaporizing room to be extinguished. I suppose that’s next….no harm to the buildings either…just the citizens. The idea that they so willingly went to be vaporized is the really creepy part.
Many combat veterans commit suicide.
That is a pretty heavy price to pay for going to War. Our wars.
Vietnam wasn’t the first time PTSD was noticed, but it’s massive appearance in veterans should have shown or taught us something. Obviously the way we treated them didn’t.
The diagnosis of PTSD began in the early 1980’s because of VN Vets. It’s symptoms are as old as time.
IT IS IMPORTANT TO NOTE—You can’t always believe what a warrior tells you about the way he or she deals with the job s/he does or did.
It’s sad if you believe them without digging deeper. And actually their feelings are no one’s business but their own. Certainly their feelings are not something the “public has a right to know.”
Feelings about war aren’t easily shared even between the veterans themselves or with their families. There is NO REASON at ALL to believe they would open their souls to the media so it could be thrown to the butchers among us who feed on the emotional and psychological pain of others.
Furthermore, if they do Feel Nothing because of the killing we send them to do, they are trained that way.
War is Ugly. Very Ugly. Maybe when everyone realizes the magnitude of what it actually is and doesn’t sit back and just talk about it, we can end wars. Until then, we must remember these women and men are doing the jobs we have hired them to do.
Sad isn’t it.
So sad many of them die there, many die by their own hands here.
Trust me – the military people who say it doesn’t “bother” them are protecting their psyche’s in order to protect the rest of America. Rest assured, it DOES ” bother them!
And will continue to bother them for the rest of not only their lives, but the lives of the families. So why do they do these things? Because they’ve seen other things, things other people can’t begin to imagine, that have convinced them that what they are doing is, in the long run, necessary for the safety and peace of ALL civilians, not just Americans. These are not your average enlisted recruits, the boots on the ground soldiers, but experienced, life long, professional military officers. Personnel who have seen more of the world than the most well-traveled jet-setter. The misconception that these pilots and analysts are “sitting in padded recliners in the suburbs” is, frankly, a crock. They ARE sitting in windowless facilities in U.S. military installations and planes around the world looking at and controling these aircraft in EXACTLY as if they were IN the aircraft. The whole point of armed drones is to reduce our casualties involved in a conventional action. Which is preferable, remember, doing nothing is NOT AN OPTION. I saw what combat duty in the North Atlantic during WWII did to my grandfather for the rest of his life. I’ve known Israeli, Turkish, German, British, Vietnamese, and even Russian military families -and non-military. I lived through and remember the Cuban missile crisis, Vietnam, the Arab-Isreali Six Day war, the Yom Kippur war, and a dozen or more brush wars, plus terrorist actions and hijackings. If you don’t remember these things then quite literally you don’t have a clue. The society in the novel “Starship Troopers” is not an unreasonable scenario. If you are not willing to stand up and stand constructively FOR your beliefs, then you really don’t have anything of value to say. If you do honestly have something to say, the way to do it is to 1) be constructively honest (after doing your homework), 2) do not denigrate those who disagree with you, they have a right to their own beliefs and if you disagree it is up to you to convince them of your rightness, 3) know whereof you speak, and 4) consider what you would do if the bad guys were invading your life, threatening the lives of YOUR loved ones. Remember, that is what these people are trying to defend, however it may look to you at the moment. If you know any world history at all, and think for yourself instead of listening to someone else spouting off unfounded gibberish, then you will KNOW that the United States IS NOT trying to rule the world, or be an Imperialistic power. To try would be absolutely insane to begin with and is completely impossible. The idea that the military teaches people to kill indiscriminately is ridiculous. Of course they train people to kill. It wouldn’t be much of a military, or even police force, if they didn’t. You would be speaking German, otherwise. But they DO NOT train people to be murderers. NO military in the free world would does that, that is the last resort of organizations that aren’t legitimate/strong enough to attempt to be more ethical/moral. So, trust me, if you have ever seen someone who has died in a car wreck, up close, then you would not have to be convinced that it does not stay with you forever, whether or not you were involved or saw the accident happen. That is what Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is. That is why service people who come back from combat have such a difficult time adjusting to”normal” society, why they become violent, harm their family, harm themselves (which is what happens in nearly every case). My grandfather had screaming nightmares, an alcohol problem, and what was called”adrenaline poisoning” the rest of his life – and he was a carpenter building Liberty ships, being shot at in the North Atlantic just off the East coast by German U-boats, trying to rescue men in the water after their freighter was torpedoed, and retrieving the cooked (literally, from burning oil tankers) bodies so that the families could have closure. A cousin of mine was a medic, an unarmed, “non-combatant” in the jungle of Vietnam. He still wakes up having beaten his wife in his sleep. If you’ve gotten nothing else out of what I’ve said here, DO NOT EVER think “it doesn’t bother” anyone who has been even close to danger, military or not.
Nice justification Denis. Walzing around with all the military corporate propaganda you have been trained to believe. One does NOT have to have lived the horror to criticise it. “War is Hell” is an idiotic attempt to keep anyone from analysing who will promote, justify, and benefit (profit from) it, whether military or civilian.
Imagine if this were Bush!! Are we too proud to demonstrate because this is a Dem in office? When will we all wake up and admit we were fooled, not like the neo-cons who wanna be fooled, but like the true Conservs who voted A rather than B also. Neither candidate represents the ideals of a just society and we shouldn’t stand behind one based on a title(repub or democrat). What is real?? In our hearts we know. NON-COMPLIANCE!
One more comment, before you (anyone) tell(s) me that I’m ” waltzing around with all the military corporate propaganda (I) have been trained to believe” be damned sure you are not the one waltzing with someone else’s propaganda. Do your homework and think for yourself. As I said, if I don’t agree with you, convince me. That means with facts and logical arguments. If you want a civil discussion, please do so. DO NOT ASSUME that I am so lazy as to not have done considerable research into a subject that I speak about, before I do so. And please pay attention to what I am really saying, even if it means reading it more than once, with a dictionary in hand.
“‘War is hell’ is an idiotic attempt to keep anyone from analyzing who will promote, justify, and benefit (profit from) it, whether military or civilian”. Again, pay attention to what I was responding to. Yes, war is hell, of course it is, no one except an insane person disagrees with that. That does not make that fact a reason for not analyzing anything. Intellectual laziness does that.
Since you know nothing about me except what I have said, I fail to see where claiming that I might condone a corrupt military-industrial-political system. comes from or is implied. Speak to any military person, politely, and you will discover the military is the first to dislike that system. I have not been in the military, nor involved with the m-i-p system. I am an engineer/analyst. I learned quite early in life, from my foreign grandmother, that what you hear in the U.S., or any other country for that matter is largely a matter of what is socio-politically correct, and to know the truth, one has work for it. I also have been involved with working with PTSD sufferers, male and female, military and civilian, in the group support setting. My daughter is a research neuro-geneticist who has studied and mapped the synaptic and genetic changes involved in stress-producing events in humans. So I do know somewhat whereof I speak. If you knew me at all you would know that the best way to make me hunt the truth is to tell me a “fact” without solid, primary, evidence and expect that I will automatically believe it. I do not get picked during jury selections, because I ask the hard questions and scare the hell out of lawyers.
No, one does not have to have lived the horror to criticize it, and that’s not the point I was making. Claiming that it was, however, is a standard knee-jerk politico-socially correct response to anything vaguely related to support for most of the “war-like, imperialistic” policies of the United States.
By the way, the title of this blog is FAIR, that means honesty and truth on both sides.
From the earliest days of Jamestown after Powhatan saved the settlement from starvation it took 2 more years when in 1609 the settlers were stronger that the intention from that point was to militarily intimidate and possess the cleared lands of local Algonquin peoples.
As subjugated peoples in Europe came over here the land needs for thousands of newcomers multiplied. The belief systems of Europeans put native people into a savage and heathen category and presaged the violence that has ensued throughout the world when our business interests needed expansion.
Likewise, our belief systems allow our militarists to impose violence to maintain and increase our business interests in the name of security.
I’m sorry, it’s my impression that this technological drone intimidation and killing satisfies that same American and/or human desire to control and impose belief systems. Now, it’s cowardly in some control room…sterile and scientific killing.
At the very least in the past, those poor people used by business/political interests who do go to war had a tactile grisly experience imbedded in their souls from the horror. Now, it’s become a mental experience which makes it like a movie detaching the antagonist, making it easier the next time. War becomes a virtual experience and any interaction or notion of communication or soul seems lost to technical espertise.
My wife whose father fought at Okinawa imposed his unacknowledged PTSD on his family. We’ve come up with a title to a book should we ever get around to writing it…
“The Aftereffects on Families When Soldiers Return Home:The Battle Continues”.
I wonder if this virtual killing is so antiseptically mental that these “pilots” are able to sleep at night, that there actions don’t bother them? That is the issue!
Drone & robotic warfare is the final step in the total industrialization of WAR for the Capital Empire that is the USofA. Once you have effectively removed the threat of death and injury to your homeland troopers, you will have quelled all mainstream dissent once and for all. What little there ever was. Any debate on “mission” goals, timetables, budgets and pullouts will evaporate, and WAR will become another stock ticker and weather-cast segment run as routine and with no more emotional context than these drone pilots are being characterized to feel now. This will coincide with the final installment of the domestic police state which will serve to route any real dissent, so that the political focus of this country can stay where it most wants to be: At the forefront of world and resource domination, taking more wealth, enslaving the willing and destroying the rest. Happily and until Underverse we all go.
Go back to the barracks and take a chill-pill Denise. Then YOU need to learn a LOT about American history (as well as punctuation & breathing), and not from the MSM or military sources you’re drawing from or from the endless stream of personal anecdotal examples, also apparently from a military background. A good start would be Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States”, any of Noam Chomsky’s political books, or any of the numerous books on US imperialism which will quickly disabuse you of the absurd notion that “the United States IS NOT trying to rule the world, or be an Imperialistic power. “
Nick. I am sorry for your wife’s suffering.
PTSD is a family disease. It is also “contagious.” I’m not joking.
PTSD often has other disorders associated with it further complicating the dynamics.
My issue here is no one knows how these pilots truly feel. P is for POST, so it may take years to rise up.
War is HELL–often so is PTSD.
The topic is how do the drone pilots live with their actions. Their responses vary from individual to individual.
I’ve been to DC several times discussing familial PTSD–in the late 90’s. Few cared then and few care now.
If we stay on topic, does it make any better sense to see that we honestly don’t know how any member of the military feels about his or her own actions? Is it truly our business unless we are going to offer support. I decided a long time ago, I wasn’t right for the military.
I grieve for the people, all people affected by war.
I know firsthand what happens in families of combat veterans.
I would suggest people sleep in the same house for a week with someone so afflicted before rendering judgement.
And yes, these veterans can and often harm the ones they should protect—their families.
Would we prefer they all kill themselves to show how painful and harmful war is?
How does Drone bombing, which kills inncoent civilians as well as “the bad guys” half a world away, in a country whose yearly GDP is about equal to the cost of two Drones help keep us safe? Wasn’t Osama Bin Laden the reason we invaded that blighted country in the first place? 11 years later we are still there killing innocent and guilty alike for what? Security? Freedom? These words have been bled dry. They have been usurped for the justication of pure evil. If this is our idea of freedom and security then we deserve neither. What we have now is Orwells 1984, except with smarter toys and means of surveillence to better fight the enemy – who have become us. We are our own worst enemy.
In my mis-spent youth I had the opportunity to meet numerous officers from the defeated German armies of WWII. They rationalized their duty just like these guys.
If the drone pilots can really compartmentalize and feel nothing as they simply do their task, we are in more trouble than I can even imagine. Killing on someone’s say so without any other justification like self defense or demonstrated guilt of any crime and with no chance to surrender, defend themselves, or escape is a moral disaster. This would have been a Nazi dream. This lack of any moral standard indicates a psychopath and/or a person headed for a mental and spiritual breakdown. These are crimes against humanity.
My suggestion to you… Do it yourself.
You see how it FEELS.
You have evidently chosen to dismiss the actual truth.
You, yes YOU sent them to WAR. We, yes WE are keeping them there. Even if it’s just a “chair in suburbia.”
Wars ARE crimes against humainty!
You and the article ask how pilots feel?
You have no IDEA!
You have no right to know unless you are willing to go with them.
Or live with them.
Or actually LISTEN TO THEM WITHOUT JUDGING THEM.
Sounds like though you have all the answers, made up your minds. Why listen?
Do You an have IDEA what war costs and I DO NOT mean $$$.
Deja vu, VN all over again. Spit in their faces, call them baby killers. Most wars kill babies and innocents. That is what makes war evil. That is what makes it hell.
If you actually knew a vet who trusted you, you might learn these things.
The trouble lies with WE THE PEOPLE, not we they the soldier.
I have tried to share my experience and knowledge and my feeliNOngs.
As a liberal myself, I am sad to see My Side use the same tactics as the other.
I don’t like games and people who won’t hear the truth. I get that enough from my conservative friends in social and women’s issues.
Good luck with your discussion here.
Check out the suicide statistics on members of the military and veterans before you make too many judgements. And YEP! I’m sure even NAZI’s got sad and remorseful about their actions, but again…who did send and is sending our troops off th the WAR MACHINE–an easy answer, tragic, yes, WE ARE!
The US military is continuing with all these drones due to the fact that they are protecting the Puppet Government of the USA’s puppeteers (corporate USA). We the people no longer have a say in what goes on in this country (like we ever really did) right?
The people are only used to keep funneling money into this worthless military that is so corrupt, it should be completely dismantled. All theses innocent children being brainwashed. Our government has created a society of brainless children. With the intelligence of the kids now (can’t work, to busy playing video games or playing on the computer to find time to learn) we don’t have to worry about them getting hurt in car accidents, hell they are so stupid they choose to undergo the brainwashing of the military and let themselves go be blown up or come back to the states a worthless vegetable that once again we as taxpayers have to pay for your lazy ass. Why not get off the computers, get an education, and do something with your life rather than live on welfare all your life.
I have no sympathy for any meat heads that defends government or military, they are both a worthless piece of S**T. You show me one good thing about them, I dare you. Don’t tell me freedom, cause I had more freedom in the 60’s than I do now. I live in a fascist society with a NON TRANSPARENT CORRUPT GOVERNMENT, MILITARY, & SUPREME COURT JESTERS! What a world to live in. Who needs to read “Alice through the looking glass” we live it in the USA!
We don’t have freedom. You are right. I don’t see many of us ever really did, but that discussion goes elsewhere.
We live in a country that wastes money on wars and the like but won’t teach our young, feed, clothe or care for or poor. Heaven forbid we care for our sick.
We invade our homes and women’s bodies and deny us our rights more than we invade other countries. However, people still join the military and become police officers and fire fighters. I have no idea why.
And while we may not like or understand any of them, we can appreciate the reasons they “signed up” and the sacrifices the make and made.
However, I know/believe veterans don’t deserve to commit suicide, suicide by cop, become homeless, die in one car accidents or any of the other “punishments” they receive for their service.
They don’t deserve to lose arms, legs, body or brain functioning because they at one time believed, or still do in a system, (perhaps) we of the boomer generation find less than perfect.
I believe in peace and education. Knowledge can lead to peace. I have learned far more than I ever would have chosen to know about the after effects of war. I am against war.
Sometimes life has a way of knocking upside the head to teach us the lessons we need to learn. I learned this the hard way.
Lucky for me, truly I have been blessed. Namaste, Blessed Be. Bless you all.
So, basically her reporting says that the military has very successfully dehumanized the targets only seen on a video screen? Great… I guess we would expect that frrom the military, but shouldn’t the press be reporting on the lives of the people who have been destroyed by these attacks?
Sure, different article. We have to talk. We have to work hard againt the status quo and the awful things our government is doing. We just have to remember We are the government. The folks with whom I disagree are much better at uniting than my “side” is.
As for these countries we invade, I’d rebel too if some great big mean country came stomping all over my street. The “victims” deserve to have their stories told.
I’d fight some little bitty wimpy gangster whom attacked my home..
Do remember though that as with VN, our soldiers don’t know who the enemy is. There babies would be wired with bombs. Unfortunately, we are again involved with a similar “enemy.” maybe that sounds like I’m rationalizing unwarranted violence to you. But, I’m just showing how those awful drones were built, perhaps, to protect our people. CERTAINLY, without regard to the enemy.
Blame the right people for starting and perpetuating our wars and I’m right there with you. I want our people home. The Reserves and National Guard never belonged over seas.
Talk about the other horrible things that go on in the military and I’m with you.
But, if a warrior or drone pilot is a monster or a robot or a video paymaster, I look in the mirror to see who shares the guilt.
And that takes pieces of my heart and soul because I know I let it happen again in My Watch.
There’s not a lot of me left to deal with this sometimes cause I lived with it.
But we sat here and let ourselves buy into that post 9/11 stuff. I knew then Afghanistan was wrong and later so was Iraq.
If we go to war, we should go. ( That fact is tragic.)
If not, we stay home and clean our own house.
My preference is stay home.
But these lengthy, merciless wars that take the hearts and souls out of all involved serve only the war masters who create the weapons.
There is no territory to gain.
Big joke on the previous administration. There isn’t even any oil.
Why has it continued with this one? I have no answe to that other than profound grief.
We certainly don’t care about freeing Muslim women as we strive to shackle our own.
Redistribution of wealth continues to support the wealthiest.
Ever seen the old version of the Time Machine where the people go inside to die…
I believe many people vote are like that. I’m aware that people think I jump in front of the train every time I vote.
Debate is good. We can only learn from each other by talking.
We can help each other by sharing our grief and putting our anger together into a creative force for positive change. Others use their anger to breed destructive change not unlike war—overseas it is war, here at home it is equally harmful…another time and place as I said.
Sorry, I’ve said way too much.
I agree with much of what all of you have said honestly.
I believe, if you care for the ‘enemy,’ you would benefit from knowing a veteran.
Col. Ann Wright has spoken and written of the effects Drone warfare upon its opporators and results in suicide.
what goes around comes around america!
Growing up with a father who was in the trenches in WWI, I understand something about PTSD which they called “shell shock” back in those days. He hated war, thought it was stupid and believed that we have it all backwards – we should talk first until differences are settled. This, of course, is sane and will never conquer anything yet along lead to ruling the world. Progress/regress continues in its sickening rush like lemmings to the sea.
Talk to any WWII pilot and he will tell you war is A-OK. Of course, he never had to deal with the tragic mess he left behind. Talk to those, like my father, who were on the ground and the story is quite different. For this and other reasons, this whole drone business scares me.
The difference between Obama and Romney is that Obama “could” change given enough pressure. Romney? You ain’t seen nothing yet: the Middle East in flames, and the rest of the world bowing down or becoming “enemies.” Remember the axis of evil?
Using the crime of 9/11 to make war on the innocent citizens of Afghanistan and later on Iraqis and Libyans to “free” them were acts of aggression that enriched the military industry at the expense of thousands of lives, limbs, infrastructure, etc., not to mention the incredible waste of resources, energy and tax dollars. How can we consider ourselves the most intelligent species based on these actions? We need to put humanity above profiteering or the entrepeneurs will demolish our planet–neither of our major candidates qualify as both seem dedicated to continuing and expanding these wars (Pres. Obama has increased the development and use of drone bombs, diabolical killers that should be outlawed)–look for peace candidates!
Many of the world’s peoples cheered when the candidate who promised “change” won, but he then proceeded to act like Bush3. The peace lovers have lost their respect for U.S. and our leader, but since our MSM is mainly controlled by the munitions’ makers who profit by war, too many Americans have been “spun” to believe these wars protect us. When Bradley Manning played the role of whistle-blower to inform us, he ended being imprisoned, tortured and tried as an enemy because the feds were embarrassed by his revelations. But the rest of the world is not so ignorant as we–and the “one-a-day” suicide rate of our armed forces substantiates the truth: wars and murder by drones does NOT make good diplomacy.
Drones are a force forward offensive, and defensive projection- of intel gathering, and lethal force capability.They lesson loss of life on our side.They are effective in these rolls and nothing new.In WW2 Japanese soldiers in a bushido tradition wanted to close with her enemies.They were killed from afar.In WW1 Elizabeths father fought with rifles.His enemies still had a strong tradition of sword play(prussian soldiers).Both learned machine guns and artillery better served there. In Vietnam we used Phantom aircraft.Our enemies pungi sticks.In Korea Migs brought hell upon out marines until countered.In the civil war balloons were used for intel gathering ,and later to silently drop bombs.Tell me again what is new under the sun?
True, the fatality effectiveness of weaponry has evolved over the years, as well we the knowledge of same. These drone bomber “pilots” are more physically secure than the flying ones, so long as they are not mentally affected by being murderers. The history of wars only makes more true that PEACE IS OUR ONLY SECURITY!
Amanda the Amish have a saying.”Take a gun into your hands -you take a gun into your heart”Live by the sword ,die by the sword is pretty strong stuff.War IS the murder of your fellow human beings.Abortion no less.Capital punishment.All the height of folly.Peace is the answer.Reverence for every human life a first step.Yeah….good luck with that.
“At the forefront of world and resource domination, taking more wealth, enslaving the willing and destroying the rest. Happily and until Underverse we all go.”
I think that actually is quite a bullish assessment of America’s future prospects.
Similarly, without endorsing the particular take of the article under discussion, the topic of effects on drone “joystick” operators (or the psychic costs of denying those effects) is also a valid part of the story, if not the most important part.
It’s difficult to believe that these people can “be home in time for dinner” and not have their mental health, personal relationships and family dynamics be distorted in some way. Unless, of course, they were already distorted prior to drone duty.
In fact, I think this is one factor in explaining why the US has so much higher an incidence of gun violence and rape and incarceration, etc., as compared to other Western democracies: The foreign policy violence in some not so mystical way comes home to roost.
Corrective
We have a free country with sliding morals and no shame.We need to get beck to some of those old fashioned things that always worked.Always will.oh…..And a punishment policy that is far too soft.That definitely is part of it.Beyond that is is a complex conundrum.Hell You could just as easily say that any country that allows the murder of millions of their own babies is bound to have a few killers in the mist.
As usual the syntactically challenged, Bible babble commentary makes no sense because on the social issues front these other Western democracies are exactly similar to the US.
It is specifically regarding incidence of gun violence and rape and incarceration, etc., that the US is so different from these other Western democracies. There are also some differences in the use of military violence by the US as compared to these other Western democracies, drones being a good example.
Therefore, we know the social issues hot button issues for fundies cannot be the causal factor in the far, far higher rates of all kinds of violence in the US and perpetrated by the US, but theocrats and Tea Baggers don’t do “causality.”
Poor, poor, lil high-school drop outs all over the land. They truly have it tough but their mommas must be so proud of their underachieving war criminals. Ain’t Americha great? Winning their minds and hearts (and the rest of their bodies) at the point of drone.