I didn't know where to post this. Might as well make a new thread to discuss all these types of actions, or alleged actions. US troops did execute Iraqi civilians, leaked letter claims
War is hell and incidents like this happen in most of them. That's why we should be out of the Unnecessary Wars business. Iraq is one of those
Unfortunately, I don't think that anyone who currently supports drone strikes, or supports a candidate for 2012 who supports drone strikes, is going to change their position no matter what news comes out about them. I fear ceezmad is dead on.
I was in the Air Force, I was part of the Predator program, I fully support the drone program. Is it illegal? maybe, but better than the alternative. You are right, Paul is the only candidate that is not a hypocrite about this topic, that is one of the things I like about him, too bad there are many others topics that I do not.
Curious, why do you support the drone program, knowing what you know about it? Do you support the death penalty?
Yes. A drone Strike can = Navy seal strike for me, but it does not put that many American lives in danger. Also, the Hell fire is a much smaller bomb that anything dropped from a jet or Bomber type plane meaning a reduced blast less of a chance for collateral damage.
I feel that the killing of people in drone attacks is immoral, if not unlawful (I do believe they are unlawful too, but that isn't the main thrust of my argument). The quicker the US stops killing people abroad, the better. I don't think Americans realise that the reason the US is hated in many parts of the world is not because of their "freedoms", but because of their attempts to subjugate and kill others. The drone attacks in particular, and American foreign policy in general, need to be re-evaluated. Do you want me to discuss any aspect in particular?
Out of every 100 people killed in drone strikes or via the death penalty, how many innocent people are you willing to accept being killed?
A girl ones told me that even if 1 person died in war then war was not worth it. She is right, war is not worth it, no human been should die because of war, but war unfortunately is also necessary, I mean WW2 was bad, many innocent people got killed, but I do think that it was good over all that we (USA) got involved and bombed the German and Japanese civilians. This is why I can not be a Libertarian, some times theory does not deal well with reality. So sure if we had a 6 sigma probability that we wold not kill innocent people or civilians would be better, at least minimizing the amount of innocents getting the shaft should be the goal. I guess this is one of the positives of China becoming the world power in the upcoming years, maybe they can take over the world police role from us. Then they have to deal with those issues.
You can have a war without killing people from the air when they are outside of the battlefield and often with their families. These strikes are on people who are not fighting. They are assassinations, and the targets have no recourse to the law. It's not just the Americans at fault, it's the Pakistani (and Yemeni etc) government too. The Pakistanis are reaping the fruits of this, the Americans will too in due course.
I wonder if those targeted will feel some sympathy with the Israelis who have to deal with incoming rocket fire with no hope that those firing the rockets will be arrested and prosecuted. The Palestinians have certainly been reaping the fruits of this random targeting of non-fighting civilians for years. Looks like the US and the Palestinians actually have something in common. Shame it is a bad thing.
By almost any metric you care to use, the israelis have created more terror than the Palestinians. You can discuss it in the israel/Palestine thread if you like.
Hey, who knew that a thread discussing American foreign intervention would drag in the abortion of foreign policy issues, the Israeli-Palestine thread. Let's move on - you aren't going to change anybody's mind discussing Israeli war crimes/apartheid or Palestinian terrorism. There are no good guys over there. Let's please not bring it up.
Here's the thing, war is ugly and isn't fair. Once you get that straight then come back and look at how drones are used. Overall they will save more lives in a combat situation, (namely the US side or whatever side uses them) then they will cost. Drone attacks are no more illegal then IED's or any plane dropping bombs. While I am against the war fought in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan is legit as AQ was based there and the Taliban supported them. I think some people here have a warped understanding about war, the war in Afghanistan is being fought different because you have an enemy that does not adhere to any convention of war. They do not wear a uniform, they hide among civlians, and they base themselves in another country that is sheltering them. Sending drones in is the only sensible and military tactic and strategy that is sound and correct. I would love to see how this is "illegal" and by whose standards they are illegal. I swear I think some of you think war is like a boxing match where there are rules everyone has to follow. Sorry folks, reality isn't like that and war is hell.