Remote Control Killing Like Sport

[Donnachaidh]

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Remote-Control-Killing-Lik-by-Stephen-Lendman-110614-274.html

Remote Control Killing Like Sport - by Stephen Lendman

Defense contractor giants like Boeing, Lockeed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and others, as well as smaller rivals compete for growing demand for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). They include remote control operated killer drones, also called unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs).

It's America's newest sport. From distant command centers, far from target sights, sounds, and smells, operators dismissively ignore human carnage showing up as computer screen blips little different from video game images. The difference, of course, is people die, mostly noncombatants. More on that below.

On March 10, 2010, Der Spiegel writer Marc Pitzke headlined, "How Drone Pilots Wage War," saying:

More at the link --

[RKP5637]

1. It's the 21st century arcade game for America. No mess, no fuss, sit and have

a good old time hunting and killing for sport. And now we have them over our skies. How long before it's search and kill here. I except to see that in my lifetime by rogue military contractors augmenting the enforcement at home.

Killing for sport = big money investments for big profits. It's always done under the name of goodness and then it walks out of control.

Dwight Eisenhower was so correct, but then again America has no generational memory.

[MineralMan]

2. True. Too much distance and no risk for those doing it.

It dehumanizes warfare far too much.

My father piloted B-17s in WWII. In doing that, he bombed targets in Germany. He mentions the disconnect from the bombing and the results of it. It still bothers him, although he doesn't deny the need for those bombings. Plus, over half of his unit was shot down during his service, so there was a great deal of risk. With the remote drones, the disconnect is even more a factor, and there is no risk at all.

[Ezlivin]

3. There's an app for that!

You've heard of "Angry Birds."

Now meet "Death From Above." Pinch to zoom, tap to release the payload. But be careful! Killing innocent civilians reduces your play time.

Only $4.99 and it's available for both iOS and Android.

[Distant Observer]

4. There was a time when this type of fight was viewed as profoundly IMMORAL AND DISHONORABLE

[Arkansas Granny]

5. Slate magazine had an excellent article about this subject a few months ago.

"Ban Drone-Porn War Crimes"

http://www.slate.com/id/2265655/

[Donnachaidh]

7. thanks for the link. n/t

[Peacetrain]

6. For every 1,000 pages written about war, 1 page is written about peace

And since WW1 we have moved away from soldiers making war on one another, to making war on the populace of your enemy.

[FLPanhandle]

8. Never really understood the outrage at drones.

Put a pilot in an airplane or helicopter and he has a monitor with the same view the drone operators have.

If a pilot pushes a button to launch a missile at what his screen is showing, then it's okay.
If a drone operator pushes a button to launch a missile at what his screen is showing, then it's not okay?

The way I see it, one way puts an American life at risk while accomplishing the same thing.

[gratuitous]

9. How about neither one is "okay"?

But that's not in keeping with the orthodoxy of the High Church of Redemptive Violence, and I know I'm a heretic. But it is immoral and indeed sinful to kill people who can't protect themselves, can't get away, and who are liquidated without warning, whether it's by unmanned drones piloted half a world away by some joystick jockey or by bombers or fighter jets whose pilots are back in the hangar before their victims stop smoking.

[azul]

10. Ah, but what will we say when Russia or China or Israel

start hunting people in the USA using drones in a couple of years?

Like our torture program, it may come back around as fair game.