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kpete

(71,902 posts)
Sat Jun 2, 2012, 12:45 PM Jun 2012

Is the rest of the world about to "do unto us"? As we have done to them? Probably.

Is the rest of the world about to "do unto us"?

As we have done to them?

Probably. Look up at the sky. Seen the drones in your area yet?


... Weapons technology -- and complex financial instruments and structures -- will not remain the sole preserve of the U.S. and its allies. What we throw at them may come back and be deployed against us.

The pattern and link analysis that the Department of Treasury, National Security Agency, CIA, FBI, and other parts of the intelligence industrial complex have used with great effect to target terrorists and influence the behavior of thuggish officials in problematic nations, like Iran, North Korea, and Syria, could conceivably be acquired by our rivals.

While the US is today preparing to further expand its drone force and as of late arm Italian drones, Iran is now trying to develop its own drones. So too it seems China and Russia.

The question that President Obama, who has admitted direct, routenized involvement in creating the drone 'kill list', should ponder is what will happen as the barriers to entry on drone technology fall enough so that an adversary's drones can be deployed against U.S. and allied forces and interests.

...Steve Clemons, Atlantic
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/06/what-happens-when-they-get-drones/257875/
via:
http://prairieweather.typepad.com/big_blue_stem/2012/06/is-the-rest-of-the-world-about-to-do-unto-us.html

18 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Is the rest of the world about to "do unto us"? As we have done to them? Probably. (Original Post) kpete Jun 2012 OP
As Bob Dylan once sang, "A hard rain's a-gonna fall" - n/t coalition_unwilling Jun 2012 #1
good point - needs to be discussed at highest levels - is it being discussed? northoftheborder Jun 2012 #2
And this would be a surprise..........why? PDJane Jun 2012 #3
Maybe not Americans, but SOME people DO have attitudes about un-necessary wars that kill INNOCENT patrice Jun 2012 #4
And if we stopped would they stop? Lol give me a break. dkf Jun 2012 #5
As the world's superpower we set the tone whatchamacallit Jun 2012 #8
Sorry but I think that is pretty naive. dkf Jun 2012 #13
Maybe if we had not started in the first place. RC Jun 2012 #11
Perhaps around the borders. Igel Jun 2012 #6
Bad but inevitable. This has been predicted and developed since at least the 70's. Egalitarian Thug Jun 2012 #7
Kill us and tell us it was for our own good? Tierra_y_Libertad Jun 2012 #9
Maybe we could just let the drones fight it out in the next world war. leeroysphitz Jun 2012 #10
Wars exists for killing people. It has always been such. RC Jun 2012 #12
Actually the concept of "total war" is fairly recent. Bonobo Jun 2012 #18
Bill Hicks said "How does it feel to know we're the evil empire?" Initech Jun 2012 #14
Current generation drones really work well against an unsophisticated enemy. joshcryer Jun 2012 #15
Then we'd be fools to stop fucking them over now! kenny blankenship Jun 2012 #16
They're just airplanes with cameras, and sometimes guns, basically bhikkhu Jun 2012 #17

PDJane

(10,103 posts)
3. And this would be a surprise..........why?
Sat Jun 2, 2012, 12:58 PM
Jun 2012

The US has been storing up a world of hurt for itself for a very long time.

"The road to hell may be paved with good intentions, but traffic on that road is governed by the law of unintended consequences.
Jim Wright.

If you go around stealing resources, including manpower, from others, killing all the minorities you can (whether by drones or starvation), and generally causing mayhem around the globe, sooner or later it comes back to you.

patrice

(47,992 posts)
4. Maybe not Americans, but SOME people DO have attitudes about un-necessary wars that kill INNOCENT
Sat Jun 2, 2012, 01:00 PM
Jun 2012

people by the 100s of thousands . . . and, you know what?, it's possible to speculate that PNAC wanted at least some of this all along.

whatchamacallit

(15,558 posts)
8. As the world's superpower we set the tone
Sat Jun 2, 2012, 03:53 PM
Jun 2012

If fiat war, disregard for international law, murder and torture is how we choose to "lead", we have to be ready to live with the dangerous consequences.

 

dkf

(37,305 posts)
13. Sorry but I think that is pretty naive.
Sun Jun 3, 2012, 01:19 AM
Jun 2012

Everyone is using whatever it takes to built the high tech weapons of the future. The downside is we have shown how efficient these things are.

 

RC

(25,592 posts)
11. Maybe if we had not started in the first place.
Sat Jun 2, 2012, 04:06 PM
Jun 2012

Maybe if we had accepted the help of the rest of the world for a police action to track down and try the terrorists that brought down the World Trade Centers, instead of invading Iraq and bombing innocent people in Baghdad.
Of course we could not accept the help of the rest of the world in a police action, as that would have exposed the bu$h administration to too many embarrassing questions about what actually happened on 09/11/2001. So we attacked an innocent country, destroyed its government and killed upward of a million people for control of its oil.
Things are to the point now where payback is gonna be a bitch and still we continue the killing of innocents.

Igel

(35,199 posts)
6. Perhaps around the borders.
Sat Jun 2, 2012, 03:34 PM
Jun 2012

Of course, those first to do it will probably be those who argued the immorality of any such action when they weren't technologically capable of doing it.

The morality of an act is often directly proportional to the availability of the means to accomplish it and the desirability of the goal. Can't do it, it's immoral. It's something that would hurt you? It's immoral. But if you can do it and it helps you, it's part of the common good.

Did I just pin my cynical meter?

Perhaps it's time to upgrade to a meter that goes to "11."

 

Egalitarian Thug

(12,448 posts)
7. Bad but inevitable. This has been predicted and developed since at least the 70's.
Sat Jun 2, 2012, 03:52 PM
Jun 2012

Air power will be the exclusive realm of machines. The existence of anti-drone drones should be made public in the next year or two, and the human combat pilot is already obsolete, but in the time-honored military tradition, it will take twenty years to get rid of them altogether.

 

Tierra_y_Libertad

(50,414 posts)
9. Kill us and tell us it was for our own good?
Sat Jun 2, 2012, 03:58 PM
Jun 2012
"Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And when you look into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you." Friedrich Nietzche
 

leeroysphitz

(10,462 posts)
10. Maybe we could just let the drones fight it out in the next world war.
Sat Jun 2, 2012, 04:06 PM
Jun 2012

We could all do our part by taking shifts controlling the U.S. drones from our Xbox consoles.

 

RC

(25,592 posts)
12. Wars exists for killing people. It has always been such.
Sat Jun 2, 2012, 04:13 PM
Jun 2012

Drones and anti-drones will not change that.


A Taste of Armageddon

Storyline

On a mission to establish diplomatic relations at Star Cluster NGC321, Kirk and Spock beam down to planet Eminiar 7 to learn that its inhabitants have been at war with a neighboring planet for over 500 years. They can find no damage nor evidence of destruction but soon learn that their war is essentially a war game, where each planet attacks the other in a computer simulation with the tabulated victims voluntarily surrendering themselves for execution after the fact. When the Enterprise becomes a victim in the computer simulation and ordered destroyed, Kirk decides it's time to show them exactly what war means. Written by garykmcd
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0708414/


Also:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Taste_of_Armageddon

Bonobo

(29,257 posts)
18. Actually the concept of "total war" is fairly recent.
Sun Jun 3, 2012, 01:59 AM
Jun 2012
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_war

For many cultures throughout history, war served somewhat more ceremonial purposes and eliminating as many people as possible was not really the point.

joshcryer

(62,265 posts)
15. Current generation drones really work well against an unsophisticated enemy.
Sun Jun 3, 2012, 01:37 AM
Jun 2012

They won't work if you got the technology to spot them and shoot them down, as we do.

By the time "they" have this generation of drones we will have moved ahead two or three generations ourselves.

kenny blankenship

(15,689 posts)
16. Then we'd be fools to stop fucking them over now!
Sun Jun 3, 2012, 01:37 AM
Jun 2012

Let no weakness go unexploited, no orifice unviolated. Bully them all to the last. We've given them no reason not to want revenge. When the shoe's on the other foot, it's going to go right upside our head. So let's get our last licks in, and hard, while we still can.

bhikkhu

(10,708 posts)
17. They're just airplanes with cameras, and sometimes guns, basically
Sun Jun 3, 2012, 01:43 AM
Jun 2012

A few generations removed from what was used in WWI, but putting the pilot on the ground with a joystick instead of in the cockpit doesn't change conventional airpower into something inherently evil or something unstoppably more effective.

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