Well-Actually War Trall Actaeon Posted February 16, 2013 Share Posted February 16, 2013 Usually, I'd ask a set of questions to provoke your thought, and maybe make the title a play on words ("Attack of the Drones"? "Game of Drones"?), but I think the media has done enough of both. As such: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/06/white-house-drone-media-_n_2632538.html http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/02/15/faa-seeks-proposals-to-create-6-drone-test-sites/ http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/02/2013213105942846108.html http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/16/technology/rise-of-drones-in-us-spurs-efforts-to-limit-uses.html http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-19842410 Discuss. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rotghroth Rhapsody Prince of Kitties Posted February 16, 2013 Share Posted February 16, 2013 It would be nice if we spent as much effort fighting poverty, illness, and the oppression of women as we do fighting terrorists. My suspicion is that fighting the terrorists directly is sexier because it provides faster gratification (and involves shooting things). Completely serious though: as satisfying as it is to blow up zealots, I think we and everyone else would do better in the long run by mitigating the conditions that produce those zealots. And us raining down destruction from above, upon the heads of the guilty and the innocent alike, is probably one of those conditions. Think about it. If armed robots from some foreign superpower were patrolling your skies, looking menacing and occasionally killing civilians, wouldn't you be inclined to join some revolutionary front? (Heck, there have even been bad sci-fi movies about that.) NB: The above is just my (bleeding heart liberal) opinion. Also, I'm not a foreign policy advisor to the President, just a random guy. Figured I should let you know. Aran 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magnificent Ornk Kelandon Posted February 16, 2013 Share Posted February 16, 2013 It's important to distinguish between drones and drone policy. If there's someone who really, really needs to be killed with minimal collateral damage, a drone can aim a hell of a lot better than most missiles can. On the other hand, when do people need to be killed? Right now, the executive branch pretty much decides that all by itself based on classified intelligence. This is sketchy. National security is not my area, so I don't have a really developed view on this yet, but I'm inclined to think that drone strikes should be used only rarely, and virtually never against anything but an extremely immediate threat. I think they are being used more than that right now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magnificent Ornk Student of Trinity Posted February 16, 2013 Share Posted February 16, 2013 I'm skeptical as well. It's something you can do, so the temptation probably exists to do it even if it's killing a lot more civilians than real bad guys. All you have to do is squint at the photos right, tell yourself that none of the bodies look innocent, and you're a hero striking back at the terrorists, instead of just another terrorist yourself. I see a lot of potential for the program to develop its own momentum, until the trigger is getting pulled just because it can be. But in principle there is something to be said for making terrorist leadership a hazardous occupation, instead of letting the old guys sit snug and send dumb kids out to die for the cause. The drone program itself is also probably pretty cheap, on the scale it takes to fight poverty and illness and barbarism. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Understated Ur-Drakon Callie Posted February 16, 2013 Share Posted February 16, 2013 It's rather frightening that the administration has reserved the right to execute its own citizens without any semblance of due process. Fighting terrorism with drone strikes seems futile to me anyway: it really just harbors resentment (as Miramor said). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hatchling Cockatrice Lilith Posted February 16, 2013 Share Posted February 16, 2013 It's important to distinguish between drones and drone policy. If there's someone who really, really needs to be killed with minimal collateral damage, a drone can aim a hell of a lot better than most missiles can. On the other hand, when do people need to be killed? Right now, the executive branch pretty much decides that all by itself based on classified intelligence. This is sketchy. National security is not my area, so I don't have a really developed view on this yet, but I'm inclined to think that drone strikes should be used only rarely, and virtually never against anything but an extremely immediate threat. I think they are being used more than that right now. Yeah, I think it's necessary to be careful when condemning "drone strikes" to take into account the context in which they exist and make it very clear what we want instead of drone strikes, because a lot of the opposition to drones has actually come from within the aerospace industry itself: they make much less profit on drones than on conventional fighter aircraft, so it's in their interests for the US government to be ordering less of the former and more of the latter. The core problem is that the US government is blowing people up whom it has no business blowing up, not the exact means it's using to do so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hatchling Cockatrice Randomizer Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 Drones are becoming the public relations and budget cutters' dream with no risk of losing the pilot to plane failure or capture and lower cost. After all a drone's camera view is no worse than a pilot in a regular plane flying overhead launching bombs and missiles at a target. You just no longer have to worry as much if you lose a drone. Whether the president can use drones to target people based upon intelligence is a separate problem. The intelligence community has been fighting a shadow war for hundreds of years going after selected people. Now the war is using the military to do the same thing. Anyone here remember the CIA plot to kill Castro? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hatchling Cockatrice Lilith Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 Anyone here remember the CIA plot to kill Castro? which one Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Well-Actually War Trall Actaeon Posted February 17, 2013 Author Share Posted February 17, 2013 The one with the exploding cigar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Easygoing Eyebeast Goldengirl Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 No, the one with the poisoned wetsuit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magnificent Ornk Aran Posted February 21, 2013 Share Posted February 21, 2013 which one the ridiculously implausible one Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hatchling Cockatrice Lilith Posted February 21, 2013 Share Posted February 21, 2013 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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