Bush touts role of technology in wars to grads

[unhappycamper]

Bush touts role of technology in wars to grads
By Patrick Winn - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday May 29, 2008 6:26:53 EDT

In his last address to a military academy as commander in chief, President Bush on Wednesday struck a playful yet cautionary tenor in his Air Force Academy commencement speech.

Bush focused on the Air Force’s innovations — laser-guided bombs, unmanned drones — and encouraged cadets to use them to wage a more merciful kind of war that reduces civilian casualties.

Speaking before 1,012 cadets, the academy’s 50th graduating class, Bush credited the Air Force with helping topple Iraqi and Afghan regimes in weeks rather than years — and without the casualty-heavy carpet bombing of wars past.

He boasted of missiles precise enough to strike trucks hidden beneath a bridge without collapsing the bridge. And he noted the proliferation of unmanned aerial vehicles and their ability to provide constant surveillance. Since 2002, he said, the number of U.S. UAVs has increased nearly 40-fold to more than 5,000 drones.

“Instead of sitting in fighter jet cockpits, some of you will sit before computer consoles at bases here in the United States, where you’ll guide Predator UAVs half a world away and use them to strike terrorist hideouts,” Bush said. “These and other changes will increase your ability to prevail in asymmetric warfare.”


Rest of article at: http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2008/05/airforce_academy_graduates_052808w/



uhc comment: How the fuck does one have a more merciful kind of war? :wtf: