Posted on 10/20/2015 11:03:14 AM PDT by mojito
...Anne, an Air Force staff sergeant, was—and still is—a remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) sensor operator or “sensor.” At Creech, she is assigned to a reconnaissance squadron flying missions over Iraq and Afghanistan. Few weapons in the American arsenal are more relentless than the RPA fleet, often called drones. For more than a decade, the United States has flown RPAs over Afghanistan and Iraq, providing forces on the ground with an eye in the sky to spot terrorists and insurgents, and in most cases the firepower to destroy them.
As she rode to work, Anne—or “Sparkle” as she’s known to her fellow drone operators—wasn’t focused on the desert outside her window. It was 2009 and President Obama was sending troops in a surge to Afghanistan. Sparkle’s mind was on a desert 7,000 miles away. Over the next 24 hours she would track an insurgent, watch as he was killed by a Hellfire missile, and spy on his funeral before ending her night with a breakfast beer and a trip to the dog park.
(Excerpt) Read more at thedailybeast.com ...
Honorable? This is war not golf. "Honorable war" as it pertains to an enemy was invented/embraced by England for the most part. The Spartans certainly showed no mercy. War should be the ugliest, nastiest, most horrible part of the human existance. It should be so horrible that no human wants to even consider it. Today, our enemy scoffs, laughs and uses our compassion (honor) to further their agenda. Meanwhile, they torture, enslave, rape, murder, etc. women, children the elderly etc. And you are conserned with honor?
Plus, we zap so many innocents with those things (it’s hard to be precise from so many thousands of miles away) that we only aid terrorist recruitment.
So many innocents? I am sure there are some here and there as a percentage. But what is innocents? I suppose the sex slave that is confined to the house serving tea to their masters/captors are innocent when a hellfire blows the place to hell. But the neighbors and family that are loyal to the terrorists and their cause, provide support, lie for them and don't vacate the vacinity are not so innocent. In fact, if we weren't SO VERY careful about the collateral damage, the enemy would be much easier to find. When all the "innocent" people fear that a bad man could be blown up an any moment whether they are standing there or not, they tend to put some distance between the potential targets and themselves.
We are so screwed.
Not really.
Think of this as evolution of standard warfare—first, eons and eons ago we hit each other with our fists, then we had sticks, the longer the better, then we threw rocks, knifes, spears, arrows, catapults, gunpower for firearms, artillery, etc, we were evolving greater stand-off, and we evolved other technologies (ICBMs and aircraft for example).
The idea is to achieve standoff where the enemy can’t hit you back. We use UAVs/RPVs/UASs and we kill them like before and we are not at risk. That is the ultimate goal, killing the enemy and not taking casualties.
A fair fight, is that what you are seeking? That we must physically close with the enemy so he has a chance to hit-back? Then why do we have snipers and stand-off weapons? Those are “dishonorable?” We bomb and strafe with aircraft from ranges far in excess than what most enemies can hit back with and that is dis-honorable?
Can’t agree with that.
“Plus, we zap so many innocents with those things (it’s hard to be precise from so many thousands of miles away) that we only aid terrorist recruitment”
The senors on RPVs (Predator, Global Hawk and others) have resolutions much better than what you have in the cockpit, so we are more accurate and sure of our target. Think big screen TV (RPV) and small 1960’s 6” screen in the cockpit. And jet can drop bombs that have glide ranges far in excess than what the pilot can see, let alone things like cruise missiles. And given the targets are rag-head rob-wearing jihadi’s. . .there is no way to say definitively that “innocents” were hurt of killed. That is why we have a target selection process, lawyers involved before any UAV drop/launch, and command authorization.
Terrorist recruitment is a nice thing to say but there has been no proof of that actually happening. They want us dead. We kill them, They want us ‘more dead’ and we kill more. No recruitment because they want us dead until we are all dead (or converted). They already hate us.
We do NOT want a fair fight. We don’t want to put our people and hardware at risk. Simple.
“I don’t know why drone operators and officers who work in the Pentagon wear flight suits.”
Duh! They might have to bail out of the chair.
Working the sensor is a good job.
I share your amusement. I've seen lots of people wandering around my customer offices in flight suits. They haven't been flying and aren't scheduled to fly on a real aircraft where the suit provides a fire retardant covering.
Spears?! There is no honor in those. The other man dies several FEET away. If everyone had one of these war would turn into nothing but mindless slaughter. No skill. No heroism. Just who can stick who fastest.
Now replace ‘spear’ with ‘javelin’...
Then replace it with bow. Then lance. Then cannon. Then musket. Then rifle. Then replace it tank, airplane howitzer, bomb, missile...etc...
it could be just an easy uniform. low maintenance.
Wait till they come up with the computer algorithm that detects your location through your smart phone, your car, your place of employment or your home, and also identifies you as a FReeper.
Not that I want to give you any more reasons to not sleep at night, but I’m just full of cheer today.
Hah. . .I take the ‘correction.’
Post 911 it was allowed, prior to that not allowed.
Then as time went on, the guys resisted going back to wearing the ‘business’ attire. . flight suites are so much more comfortable (and a heck of a lot easier for the wives to launder).
The British said the same thing when we started shooting officers.
They wanted to have war crimes trials and such.
Of course, this all works until the other side decides to go 4th generation warfare here instead of there.
The drones are at the end of a LONG supply chain.
“No dumb bastard ever won a war by going out and dying for his country. He won it by making some other dumb bastard die for his country.”
General George S. Patton
http://quoteinvestigator.com/2015/04/24/war/
So are pajamas. ;-)
So, you think we aren’t fighting fair? $hit, oh dear!!
Have you seen the most recent "Captain America" movie?
“gtx960 Since Oct 8, 2015”
Possible troll?
“But it would be enlightening to know if they also had life vests and parachutes. G-Suit? If the drone is shot down, do they “bail out” of the room?”
It would be a great gag to pull.
Closest I ever got was a harebrained idea to turn a parachute pack into carry-on luggage.
No he wouldn’t. Patton believed in winning. He used technology to his advantage. Put him in the modern age he’s be all over drone warfare.
No tie.
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