The High Cost of Cheap War (Drones and Private Military Contractors)

[tekisui]

Source: Salon

It seems only fitting that in the very month the "Terminator" sci-fi franchise predicted the rise of militarized artificial intelligence, the Guardian of London reported on a British Ministry of Defence analysis warning that drone warfare may be creating an "incremental and involuntary journey towards a Terminator-like reality." The report's life-imitating-Skynet idea of robots ultimately making combat decisions is certainly scary -- but still a bit fantastical. The more frightening part of the analysis was its look at how roboticized war may already be prompting governments to "resort to war as a policy option far sooner than previously."

The dynamic is not surprising -- nations will inevitably be more willing to use warfare as a foreign policy tool if they possess instruments limiting the cost of waging war. By letting kids in Las Vegas drop remote-controlled bombs on kids in Pakistan, Yemen and now Libya, drones are one of those instruments. But they are only one of many. Indeed, while President Obama preposterously claimed this week that most Americans "know well the costs of war," it's quite the opposite: Most Americans have been insulated from those costs -- and it's no coincidence that as we've become more insulated, we've happily waged more frequent wars.

This process of insulation was a gradual one. The first step was the mastering of aerial attacks, which allowed us to safely commit mass murder at 40,000 feet.

Next came the end of conscription during the Vietnam conflict -- a move that calculatedly defused antiwar sentiment by disconnecting most of the population from the blood-and-guts consequences of war. Then it was on to George W. Bush, who coupled long-term military occupations with massive tax cuts. The twin policies, which defied World War II's ethos of domestic sacrifice, suggested to Americans that there is no longer any personal financial hardship associated with war.

more: http://www.salon.com/news/us_military/index.html?story=/news/feature/2011/05/06/high_cost_cheap_war

[VeryConfused]

1. Cost of war blah blah blah dollars

Killing America's number one enemy... PRICELESS!