10 replies to this topic

[Kafkaesque]

http://www.telegraph...ll-is-4700.html

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It was the first time a politician or any government representative had referred to a total number of fatalities in the drone strikes, which have been condemned by rights groups as extrajudicial assassinations.

The toll from hundreds of drone-launched missile strikes against suspected Al-Qaeda militants in Pakistan, Yemen and elsewhere has remained a mystery, as US officials refuse to publicly discuss any details of the covert campaign.

But Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a staunch supporter of the drone raids, openly cited a number that exceeds some independent estimates of the death toll.

"We've killed 4,700," Mr Graham was quoted as saying by the Easley Patch, a local website covering the small town of Easley in South Carolina.

[acidhead]

The drone strikes only create more resentment towards America.  It's counter productive but what does anybody expect from a GOV program anyways? ....Positive Results?!?!

[AsteroidX]

WoW. Is that in America yet ?

[hatecraft]

Coming soon to a neighborhood near you!

[coolguy]

There is no difference between drone attacks or sending in an f 16 falcon to drop bombs on them. Drones save American pilots lifes.

[acidhead]

coolguy, on 21 February 2013 - 05:32 AM, said:

There is no difference between drone attacks or sending in an f 16 falcon to drop bombs on them. Drones save American pilots lifes.

THEY have families and friends who care about their lives too.

[DarkHunter]

But it is war and people die in war.  No one can deny that drones are an extremely effective weapon system and it would be extremely foolish not to us such an efficient weapon system.  

This may make me sound cruel and heartless but I don't really care about the people killed in the drone strikes or their families and friends.  I just can't feel any sympathy for those killed because they where either militants fighting against US forces, people who supported the militants by giving them food, shelter, and supplies so even though they are not actively fighting US forces they are still enemies, or they are innocents who died because of the asymmetric style of war the militants and their supporters decided to fight.  Either they where enemies of the US or died because the enemies of the US decided to use them for cover, and while it is regrettable that innocents are being killed it simply can not be avoided.  

It is ironic in a twisted kind of way that by trying to have the moral high ground in this conflict that we are killing more innocents then if we where not so moral.  The only reason they use innocents for cover is because they know we are unwilling to fire at innocents, if we where willing to fire at the combatants and their supporters no matter if innocents where in the way or not I predict that they would quickly stop using innocents for cover and we would ultimately have less innocents killed.  I may be wrong but when has any semi-competent fighting force used a strategy or tactic that is clearly not working.  I just find it hilarious that people in the west are so concerned with being moral and politically correct they are willing to kill themselves over it.

[acidhead]

Then, I guess, you are a victim too.

[and then]

acidhead, on 21 February 2013 - 05:35 AM, said:

THEY have families and friends who care about their lives too.

The morality of drone strikes is up to question Acid, but not for that reason.  If these people have been identified as aggressors then they are fair targets for death.  They and their compatriots are killing US and coalition forces as rapidly as they are able.  Snipers do the same task on a battlefield.  Are they immoral as well?  Or is it just war in general and the US in particular that is the problem?  Drones have become a frighteningly proficient way to eliminate "targets" from the sky.  The troubling part is who decides which targets are next.

[MichaelW]

So people say drones and everyone thinks aircraft with missiles, not a cheap polystyrene quadrotor thing with a smoky two-stroke engine with a camera attached to it than can be controlled from an iPhone?

Seriously America, get smart.

[AsteroidX]

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Seriously America, get smart.