These are terrific for fighting insurgents, guerrillas and terrorists. That’s great, they give us a huge “overmatch” edge in our war on islamic terror.
But if our own govt ever turns tyrant, forcing socialism, gun control etc on a largely unwilling nation, then these drones could be a fearsome tool against freedom.
For example, if and when “unauthorized meetings of groups of ten or more unrelated persons” would be forbidden, these killer drones would be just the ticket to keep an iron fist hovering above any potential meetings of patriots.
Not only in the USA, of course. In Russia, China etc they would help contain or stamp out “anti-government forces.”
Plus, they are “priced right” for tin pot dictators like Chavez, etc.
Again, if it gets to that in America, then it's already too late, no matter what the weapons of the military.
Wouldn't you agree that of any group, Freepers would comprise a larger percentage of such 'patriots' than the general population?
And just how many of those patriots would find each other if the government simply shut down the internet for a month? Zilch. Maybe one gun group in Houston, that's it.
As advanced as Americans THINK they are with respect to defenders of liberty, etc...we've got NOTHING on the word-of-mouth cohesion of 'primitives' in Sudan, etc.
We don't have the mere basics to defend liberty. Like an instinct to rally to the defense of Waco, for example. It didn't matter what kind of nutso Koresh was. Real liberty lovers would've surrounded the place and freed the children first, opposed the 'lightly armed' government forces.
Sorry. But with this standing Army, THEY are either with us opposing the government with the government bought weapons, or we are their subjects. Period.
If it comes to that, then the war has been lost. No group of patriots, or militia, or whatever you want to call it has jet fighters and tanks. Not to mention satellite surveillance and nukes.
No modern government has been overthrown without significant elements of the military switching sides. In Russia in 1917, the army resorted to using peasant conscripts, who were more sympathetic to the Bolsheviks than their officers. In China, the communists had been part of the WWII effort, and were a de facto part of the military, well-trained and well-equipped. In Russia in 1991, the coup failed because the tankers decided to defend Yeltsin and company at the White House rather than attack them.
If it were to come to that in the US, our best hope would be in the Reserves and the National Guard -- folks who don't live in the isolated world of the military, but with and among us. If ordered to fire on an unruly crowd of their neighbors, they would be less inclined to shoot the crowd than to shoot the officer giving the order.