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Attack of the Drones

The US government’s growing reliance on aerial drones to pursue its war on al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Yemen, Afghanistan and elsewhere is proving controversial – as evidenced by the international reaction to recent drone missile attacks along the border with Pakistan.

But Barack Obama’s administration is undeterred, favouring the technology more and more because it reduces the need for American troops in those countries and the risk of politically unpalatable casualties.

But this strategy is giving rise to anxieties that conflict is becoming just a big computer game, in which ‘desk pilots’ in air conditioned bunkers far from the battlefield can kill a few enemy fighters and then go home to their families, remote from the human consequences of their actions or the anguish of associated civilian casualties.

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  1. So a guy voluntarily went to a Taliban leader after he had been invited… Did he not expect to be kidnapped?

  2. I fail to see how deploying pilots on the actual battlefield will make things better. What was the world expecting when it supported the US on “The War on Terror”?

  3. ever hear of a company named SKYNET?

  4. ever hear of a company named SKYNET?

  5. The question is, “how long until our government points them at the American people?”

    • You do realize we have had planes with weapons on them for over 50 years right?
      Just like we have rifles and tanks and choppers

      If they would do it they would have already done it..,,

      Funny how using your brain answers a lot of questions

  6. The only people with “anxieties” are the folks being targeted by these drones, lol