Fun With Drones

[CuteOldGuy]

I can't believe so many of you support this.

I worked on the US drone program. The public should know what really goes on.

Whenever I read comments by politicians defending the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Predator and Reaper program – aka drones – I wish I could ask them some questions. I'd start with: "How many women and children have you seen incinerated by a Hellfire missile?" And: "How many men have you seen crawl across a field, trying to make it to the nearest compound for help while bleeding out from severed legs?" Or even more pointedly: "How many soldiers have you seen die on the side of a road in Afghanistan because our ever-so-accurate UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicle] were unable to detect an IED [improvised explosive device] that awaited their convoy?"

Few of these politicians who so brazenly proclaim the benefits of drones have a real clue of what actually goes on. I, on the other hand, have seen these awful sights first hand.

I knew the names of some of the young soldiers I saw bleed to death on the side of a road. I watched dozens of military-aged males die in Afghanistan, in empty fields, along riversides, and some right outside the compound where their family was waiting for them to return home from mosque.

The US and British militaries insist that this is such an expert program, but it's curious that they feel the need to deliver faulty information, few or no statistics about civilian deaths and twisted technology reports on the capabilities of our UAVs. These specific incidents are not isolated, and the civilian casualty rate has not changed, despite what our defense representatives might like to tell us.

What the public needs to understand is that the video provided by a drone is a far cry from clear enough to detect someone carrying a weapon, even on a crystal-clear day with limited clouds and perfect light. This makes it incredibly difficult for the best analysts to identify if someone has weapons for sure. One example comes to mind: "The feed is so pixelated, what if it's a shovel, and not a weapon?" I felt this confusion constantly, as did my fellow UAV analysts. We always wonder if we killed the right people, if we endangered the wrong people, if we destroyed an innocent civilian's life all because of a bad image or angle.

It's also important for the public to grasp that there are human beings operating and analysing intelligence these UAVs. I know because I was one of them, and nothing can prepare you for an almost daily routine of flying combat aerial surveillance missions over a war zone. UAV proponents claim that troops who do this kind of work are not affected by observing this combat because they are never directly in danger physically.

But here's the thing: I may not have been on the ground in Afghanistan, but I watched parts of the conflict in great detail on a screen for days on end. I know the feeling you experience when you see someone die. Horrifying barely covers it. And when you are exposed to it over and over again it becomes like a small video, embedded in your head, forever on repeat, causing psychological pain and suffering that many people will hopefully never experience. UAV troops are victim to not only the haunting memories of this work that they carry with them, but also the guilt of always being a little unsure of how accurate their confirmations of weapons or identification of hostile individuals were.

Of course, we are trained to not experience these feelings, and we fight it, and become bitter. Some troops seek help in mental health clinics provided by the military, but we are limited on who we can talk to and where, because of the secrecy of our missions. I find it interesting that the suicide statistics in this career field aren't reported, nor are the data on how many troops working in UAV positions are heavily medicated for depression, sleep disorders and anxiety.

Recently, the Guardian ran a commentary by Britain's secretary of state for defence Philip Hammond. I wish I could talk to him about the two friends and colleagues I lost, within one year leaving the military, to suicide. I am sure he has not been notified of that little bit of the secret UAV program, or he would surely take a closer look at the full scope of the program before defending it again.

The UAV's in the Middle East are used as a weapon, not as protection, and as long as our public remains ignorant to this, this serious threat to the sanctity of human life – at home and abroad – will continue.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentis...es-us-military

[JD Barleycorn]

I wonder how bombardiers felt after World War II when the came to the full realization that they dropped bombs on churches, schools, hospitals, women, children, and old people while trying to kill German and Japanese soldiers? War is never pretty and never clean like they have you imagine when you're a child. It used to be that dead soldiers are described as intact, serene, and laid out in repose on the battlefield.

Go look up Thomas Ferebee. He was the bombardier who dropped the bomb on Hiroshima.

[BigLouie]

So many British newspapers made stuff up without a shred of truth that I don't pay attention to anything they print.

[Guest123018-4]

How many soldiers were killed in the attacks on 9/11?

If the "people" of these shit-hole countries would stop protecting and harboring these radical terrorists and give them up there would be a lot less collateral damage.

This is a prime example of why there is no room for theocracies in government, including our own.

[JD Barleycorn]

Which theocracy are you referring to: the global warming theocracy, the environmental theocracy, the socialist (they generally refused to acknowledge a god other than man) theocracy, the atheist united front?

[FU_CC]

Originally Posted by The2Dogs

How many soldiers were killed in the attacks on 9/11?

If the "people" of these shit-hole countries would stop protecting and harboring these radical terrorists and give them up there would be a lot less collateral damage.

This is a prime example of why there is no room for theocracies in government, including our own.

gundam seed destiny ... "for mi pure world" ... anyone want to be human lab rat wire in the brain to go buy shit

[BJerk]

Originally Posted by The2Dogs

How many soldiers were killed in the attacks on 9/11?

If the "people" of these shit-hole countries would stop protecting and harboring these radical terrorists and give them up there would be a lot less collateral damage.

This is a prime example of why there is no room for theocracies in government, including our own.

We have never had a theocracy for our government!

[Yssup Rider]

Originally Posted by JD Barleycorn

Which theocracy are you referring to: the global warming theocracy, the environmental theocracy, the socialist (they generally refused to acknowledge a god other than man) theocracy, the atheist united front?

So glib. But a gross misuse of the language, for a change.

Yawwwnnnn!

[WTF]

Originally Posted by JD Barleycorn

Which theocracy are you referring to:?

The Tea Turd Theocracy

[Jackie S]

[QUOTE=JD Barleycorn;1054770676

Go look up Thomas Ferebee. He was the bombardier who dropped the bomb on Hiroshima.[/QUOTE]

To my knowledge, Thomas Ferebee never showed any regrets about pulling the lever that released " little boy".

My own thoughts? In 1945, my father was in the Philipines, training for what would be the invasion of the Japan Homeland.

If the war had continued, there is a good possibility I would have never been conceived, as I was born in early 1947.

[FU_CC]

if u undelete you C THIS


FUCK YOU ASSHOLE

[CJ7]

fun with SHOCK AND AWE ... 48 hours of non stop bombing, men, women, children, churches ... anything walking the ground under the planes dropping bombs ...

fun fun fun ...

eos

[Guest032516]

Originally Posted by CJ7

fun with SHOCK AND AWE ... 48 hours of non stop bombing, men, women, children, churches ... anything walking the ground under the planes dropping bombs ...

Churches?

What the fuck are you rambling about?

[CuteOldGuy]

Originally Posted by ExNYer

Churches?

What the fuck are you rambling about?

CBJ7 is simply applying the lame argument that since President Bush committed war crimes and atrocities, we have to allow President Obama the opportunity to commit war crimes and atrocities.

It really makes no sense to anyone but CBJ7. I don't think we should allow any of our leaders to commit war crimes and atrocities, regardless of party. But that's just me.

[IIFFOFRDB]