Drones Are Weapons of Choice in Fighting Qaeda

[Bragi]

Source: NY Times

A missile fired by an American drone killed at least four people late Sunday at the house of a militant commander in northwest Pakistan, the latest use of what intelligence officials have called their most effective weapon against Al Qaeda.

And Pentagon officials say the remotely piloted planes, which can beam back live video for up to 22 hours, have done more than any other weapons system to track down insurgents and save American lives in Iraq and Afghanistan...

Pilots, who fly them from trailers halfway around the world using joysticks and computer screens...

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/17/business/17uav.html?_r=1&hp

---

Is it just me that finds little to celebrate in the fact that the U.S. is now mounting its foreign killing exercises against (maybe) terrorists and (always) any civilians near them by using robots that are controlled from thousands of miles away?

Personally, I find the combination of inhumanity and cowardice on display here to be quite disturbing.

[saigon68]

1. Nice Job of Killing Civilians (the Terminator Syndrome)

Guaranteed to win hearts and minds.

God help the "little Troopies" if they are captured by these people.

[lucretia54]

2. So all that time spent on the joystick wasn't wasted after all...

so don't worry moms, your kids are just getting their pre-training for the military!

[spin]

3. Robots will play a big role in future wars...

Robots will be armies of the future in a case of science fact catching up to fiction, a researcher told an elite TED gathering on Wednesday.

********snip*******

Singer predicts that US military units will be half machine, half human by 2015.

********snip*******

The United States is ahead in military robots, but in technology there is no such thing as a permanent advantage," Singer said. "You have Russia, China, Pakistan and Iran working on military robots."
http://www.physorg.com/news153049974.html

[Bragi]

4. The whole thing creeps me out

When I think of the idea of humanity using our fabulous intelligence to develop machines that will allow us to sit in front of terminals in mundane offices in strip malls so we can playfully hunt down and kill people thousands of miles away, and blow up their houses and towns, well, fuck. If this is the best we can do, if we can't stop this from happening, if we can't even see the horrific immorality in this, then we deserve to go extinct as a species. (Which, given the situation, is probably more likely than not.)

- B

[spin]

5. I feel right now mankind is taking a test...

If we can control our use of technology and learn to get along with each other, we pass the test and we will eventually gain the knowledge to travel to the stars.

If we fail, we go extinct.

[Bragi]

10. Good way to look at it

I'm not at all morose about it (I'm too old for that!) but I don't think there's a lot of evidence suggesting we will pass the test.

[Lost in CT]

8. So hitting people with machetes is better? nt

[harun]

15. I don't think this is going to win us much respect.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

6. So you would rather have a soldier endanger their life and still kill the wrong people sometimes?

[Bragi]

9. An unusual perspective

It's as though the goal of war is to keep soldiers safe.

As for killing the wrong people sometimes, in most wars, the wrong people are always getting killed.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

11. It's certainly one of our goals, if not we are spending way too much money on armor.

Sometimes we kill the right people.


David

[saigon68]

14. It's the "Kill Em All Let God Sort Em Out" syndrome

[ohio2007]

12. Suicide Attacks Kill 12 in Afghanistan ( Taliban's drug supply being threatened by Afghan police)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3784971

Sometimes the picture is larger then what you see.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

13. That would relate to my comment how exactly?

[ohio2007]

7. Suicide belts......

the weapon of choice used by uneducated fools left behind

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bzTA_D5NpU&eurl=