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In reply to the discussion: If you've never served in the military than you can't criticize those who have. [View all]Bradical79
(4,490 posts)Your post brings up a bothersome topic.
I don't know this for a fact, but it seems most civilian casualties don't happen due to conscious decisions by troops on the ground these days. We often hear about "accidents" like when our drones or missiles unintentionally kill civilians. The way our drone program works though would make me question how accidental many of these tragedies actually are.
While we don't send drones out specifically to target civilians, the pilots use computer algorithms that decide how much civilian lives can be risked depending on the value of the target. You get a high enough profile target hanging out around civilians, and they will fire that missile knowing full well that civilians will die. Meanwhile the "pilot" is sitting in a lovely air conditioned room in front of a computer monitor back here in the states, just like any typical white collar worker, with little to no accountability. From what I've read (in both Rachel Maddow's book and online) it sounds if the algorithm spits out a number in some pre-determined acceptable range, that target is toast along with any other poor soul who happened to be walking by. Though they aren't the targets, I'd still consider that the intentional killing of civilians.