General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsIs the rest of the world about to "do unto us"? As we have done to them? Probably.
Is the rest of the world about to "do unto us"?
As we have done to them?
Probably. Look up at the sky. Seen the drones in your area yet?
... Weapons technology -- and complex financial instruments and structures -- will not remain the sole preserve of the U.S. and its allies. What we throw at them may come back and be deployed against us.
The pattern and link analysis that the Department of Treasury, National Security Agency, CIA, FBI, and other parts of the intelligence industrial complex have used with great effect to target terrorists and influence the behavior of thuggish officials in problematic nations, like Iran, North Korea, and Syria, could conceivably be acquired by our rivals.
While the US is today preparing to further expand its drone force and as of late arm Italian drones, Iran is now trying to develop its own drones. So too it seems China and Russia.
The question that President Obama, who has admitted direct, routenized involvement in creating the drone 'kill list', should ponder is what will happen as the barriers to entry on drone technology fall enough so that an adversary's drones can be deployed against U.S. and allied forces and interests.
...Steve Clemons, Atlantic
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/06/what-happens-when-they-get-drones/257875/
via:
http://prairieweather.typepad.com/big_blue_stem/2012/06/is-the-rest-of-the-world-about-to-do-unto-us.html
coalition_unwilling
(14,180 posts)northoftheborder
(7,574 posts)PDJane
(10,103 posts)The US has been storing up a world of hurt for itself for a very long time.
"The road to hell may be paved with good intentions, but traffic on that road is governed by the law of unintended consequences.
Jim Wright.
If you go around stealing resources, including manpower, from others, killing all the minorities you can (whether by drones or starvation), and generally causing mayhem around the globe, sooner or later it comes back to you.
patrice
(47,992 posts)people by the 100s of thousands . . . and, you know what?, it's possible to speculate that PNAC wanted at least some of this all along.
dkf
(37,305 posts)whatchamacallit
(15,558 posts)If fiat war, disregard for international law, murder and torture is how we choose to "lead", we have to be ready to live with the dangerous consequences.
dkf
(37,305 posts)Everyone is using whatever it takes to built the high tech weapons of the future. The downside is we have shown how efficient these things are.
RC
(25,592 posts)Maybe if we had accepted the help of the rest of the world for a police action to track down and try the terrorists that brought down the World Trade Centers, instead of invading Iraq and bombing innocent people in Baghdad.
Of course we could not accept the help of the rest of the world in a police action, as that would have exposed the bu$h administration to too many embarrassing questions about what actually happened on 09/11/2001. So we attacked an innocent country, destroyed its government and killed upward of a million people for control of its oil.
Things are to the point now where payback is gonna be a bitch and still we continue the killing of innocents.
Igel
(35,356 posts)Of course, those first to do it will probably be those who argued the immorality of any such action when they weren't technologically capable of doing it.
The morality of an act is often directly proportional to the availability of the means to accomplish it and the desirability of the goal. Can't do it, it's immoral. It's something that would hurt you? It's immoral. But if you can do it and it helps you, it's part of the common good.
Did I just pin my cynical meter?
Perhaps it's time to upgrade to a meter that goes to "11."
Egalitarian Thug
(12,448 posts)Air power will be the exclusive realm of machines. The existence of anti-drone drones should be made public in the next year or two, and the human combat pilot is already obsolete, but in the time-honored military tradition, it will take twenty years to get rid of them altogether.
Tierra_y_Libertad
(50,414 posts)leeroysphitz
(10,462 posts)We could all do our part by taking shifts controlling the U.S. drones from our Xbox consoles.
RC
(25,592 posts)Drones and anti-drones will not change that.
A Taste of Armageddon
Storyline
On a mission to establish diplomatic relations at Star Cluster NGC321, Kirk and Spock beam down to planet Eminiar 7 to learn that its inhabitants have been at war with a neighboring planet for over 500 years. They can find no damage nor evidence of destruction but soon learn that their war is essentially a war game, where each planet attacks the other in a computer simulation with the tabulated victims voluntarily surrendering themselves for execution after the fact. When the Enterprise becomes a victim in the computer simulation and ordered destroyed, Kirk decides it's time to show them exactly what war means. Written by garykmcd
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0708414/
Also:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Taste_of_Armageddon
Bonobo
(29,257 posts)For many cultures throughout history, war served somewhat more ceremonial purposes and eliminating as many people as possible was not really the point.
Initech
(100,102 posts)joshcryer
(62,276 posts)They won't work if you got the technology to spot them and shoot them down, as we do.
By the time "they" have this generation of drones we will have moved ahead two or three generations ourselves.
kenny blankenship
(15,689 posts)Let no weakness go unexploited, no orifice unviolated. Bully them all to the last. We've given them no reason not to want revenge. When the shoe's on the other foot, it's going to go right upside our head. So let's get our last licks in, and hard, while we still can.
bhikkhu
(10,724 posts)A few generations removed from what was used in WWI, but putting the pilot on the ground with a joystick instead of in the cockpit doesn't change conventional airpower into something inherently evil or something unstoppably more effective.