Predator airstrikes hit all-time high in Iraq

[unhappycamper]

Predator airstrikes hit all-time high in Iraq
By Tom Vanden Brook - USA Today
Posted : Tuesday Apr 29, 2008 7:48:10 EDT

WASHINGTON — U.S. commanders in Iraq have ordered an unprecedented number of airstrikes by unmanned airplanes in April to kill insurgents in urban combat and to limit their ability to launch rockets at American forces, military records show.

The 11 attacks by Predators — nearly double the previous high for one month — were conducted as the Pentagon has intensified efforts to increase the use of drones, which play an increasingly vital role for gathering intelligence and launching attacks in Iraq. Last week, Defense Secretary Robert Gates prodded the Air Force to do more to rush drones to the war zone.

The increase in Predator attacks coincided with a spike in fighting in Baghdad’s slum of Sadr City and in the city of Basra, where the Iraqi government mounted an offensive to root out militias there.

Commanders are expected to rely more on unmanned systems as 30,000 U.S. troops sent last year are withdrawn. The military has dozens of Predators in Iraq and Afghanistan. In all, it operates 5,000 drones, 25 times more than it had in 2001.

“The Predator teams have just been doing unbelievable work down there and in Baghdad as well,” Army Gen. David Petraeus, the top commander in Iraq, said in a statement last week.


Rest of article at: http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2008/04/gns_uav_042908/

[Eagle_Eye]

1. Nintendo Warfare; It is all good! -- For right now ...

Charting the course of military operations over the last 30 to 40 years shows a definite trend toward using contractors to perform tasks that were once common for troops to perform. First it was simple things like cooking the food and cutting the grass.

Today contractors are doing just about everything except pull the trigger, (I know about Blackwater). Contractors write the contracts to hire themselves to produce the goods and services for the military. They operate the transportation systems that deliver the munitions right up to the front lines.

When the day comes that the unmanned killer robots are operated by faceless hired contractors from some secret facility at Nellis AFB, we are all in trouble. There will be nothing to keep our 'elected' government officials from turning the robots on the domestic population.

There is something good to be said about a citizen army that swears allegiance to the homeland.