We need to get the technology to those now the victims of this tyranny. Perhaps if they sent a few over here in the hopes of getting a war criminal, they might get lucky, after all there are thousands. The other course would be for them to use remote control and actual aircraft just like that used on 9/11, I believe it was called Cyclops or something like that. Very effective!!

Just think of it as a suicide bombing without the suicide.

"We have met the enemy and he is us." Pogo

In addition to the great posts above:

"Since 2006 we've killed 14 senior al-Qaeda leaders using drone strikes; in the same time period we've killed 700 Pakistani civilians in the same area. The drone strikes are highly unpopular."

14 "senior al-quaeda leaders"???? That is a straight up LIE! Where is the evidence? Show me, don't tell me. We have been hearing this BS propaganda for 8 years. They might have killed some Pashtun males with AKs, however that is not Al-Quaeda. Sure there are militants who are angry at US atrocities and imperialism, but there is no such thing as Al-Quaeda. Anyone who goes along with this fantasy needs to ask themselves if they are to believe a neocon fantasy.

The propaganda never ceases, the storyline has not changed much if at all since the Obama folks stepped in.

Now we know they are on the Canadian, U.S. border. We just don't know if those are armed drones or not. At any rate, the number is sure to increase there. The number will probably increase internally, also, to take the place of stationary cameras all over the country being 'susceptible to terrorist/criminal action.'

Like spray paint.

Can't add much to this 100% appropriate rage, but just want to say I'm also struck by the abject cowardliness of the War on Terror. Now they're not even willing to risk pilots; they have to use robots to do their killing. And they can't put their prisoners of war in real jails, even - they're scared to let them into the country, so they have to stay in Bagram / Guanatanamo. And, per Obama, we certainly can't let them have a trial.

This is a country that calls itself "the land of the free and the home of the brave." But in under a decade's time, they've given up their freedoms and ask only one thing of government "keep us safe." And interesting, the more right-wing and pro-military an American is, the more likely he or she is to act in the most cowardly possible way.

It's quite striking.

What does CIA Director Leon Panetta's mean when he says that sometimes civilian deaths from other operations including less precise F16 jet strikes are blamed on drones - That since the drones kill fewer civilians than the F16s, this makes them somehow OK? "What the heck, it could have been worse", is that what the CIA Director would say if he was face to face with relatives of Afghan civilians whose loved ones had been blown apart by CIA drones?

Drones are a most cowardly form of terrorism; but as BeForKids states it gives us a cool kill ratio.

The really bad news is that a simplified version of that thing (remote drone) is going to start being used by law enforcement in the US. Oh, the argument will be the same: that it's cheaper and safer to operate than an F-16 or a Apache (or police) helicopter. But in the end, like they always do, They'll continue to use both.

More good news is that lots of those psycho blackwater and DOD goons is coming home soon to a local law enforcement division near you. Now that they've perfected torture and genocide it's going to be a whole new breed of cop with an attitude.

Glad I'm gone. Think I'll stay outta there for about ten years.

TJ

"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent." - Thomas Jefferson

This is the same strategy that didn't work for us in Vietnam, when we carpet bombed Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. The strategy was to drop as many bombs as possible so that the defense industry would have to produce more, thus lining the pockets of those in charge. It is an immoral and bankrupt policy and is the best "terrorist" recruiting tool we can use.

A 50:1 civilian:alleged terrorist kill ratio obviously delights Obama and Gates, but it violates the Geneva and Hague Conventions, all just-war theories, and our own self-interest. The immense number of civilian casualties, whether in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan or Palestine, fuels the rage that gives rise to terrorism, perpetuating the vicious cycle of terrorism and its moral equivalent, American counterterrorism.

US Predator Covert Assassinations is more like it.

What human beings could ever design and manufacture
these murder weapons - that's all they are used for.

Concerns over drones killing civilians? It's old news.
Obama ignored it then and he'll ignore it now.

What was that infamous line about Iraq that Cheney said after losing the 2004 election?
"Who cares." "It's full speed ahead!"

Obama is way more heartless than anyone imagines.

Face the truth America.

Your hands from the begining were and are soaked with the blood of the innocent. You honed your blood letting "skills" on the Native Tribes sending more than half of them into oblivion as "extinct". When you would not settle your disagreements among yourselves in a civilized manner, you killed more of yourselves in just four years of "Civil War" than all of the other wars ----combined---before then or since. The greatest of ironies is that war was over the "right" to own another human being as property.
And when those people were "freed", they still did not receive the full benefits of citizenship for another 100 years. That is something to be proud of America.

Then you began exporting death, and in particular that of the innocent to the far "corners" of the earth, justifying each new war for "democracy" "freedom" "liberty"---"mom" or "apple pie"---or in the latest---to 'keep America and Americans safe". You are the only nation (so far) to use Nuclear Weapons and you did so --knowingly---against an innocent--civilian population. With the first "bomb" as many as 100 thousand civilian Japanese at Hiroshima---later thousands more would die at Nagasaki, and even more would die later from the "fallout"---and some are still dying from the many illnesses attributed to those Nuclear Weapons..............all of them innocent non-combatants.
And you honored the military personnel who delivered those weapons with accolades, medals, and pensions---for life.

History will treat you the only way they can: A bloody people, who justified the shedding of innocent blood with frivolous excuses that history will only marvel at the arrogance of--- and the repetition--- that you excelled in.

You may also be attributed with the revelation to human kind; that there is no "God". No "God" would allow such a bloody people to thrive as you have after shedding so much innocent blood.

I am so glad that I am not one of you, but one of your prisoners---held against my will----in my own country---by the 'bloodiest people' in the history of mankind.

Good Luck America, you really need it.

Curtis ,It's just a matter of time before a 'terrorist'group gets some drones of thier own.However primative or maybe uses our own against us. I have paranoid fantasies about .. swarms of robotic killer insects,predator wasps,nanobots crawling under my doors,or worse up my drawers like remote control deer ticks bearing designer diseases argh!@#$%^&.The Reaper and Predator are scary as hell but at Millions a pop,probably too expensive for extensive domestic use,except maybe as border surveillance and rescue searches.
When we opened the pandoras box of video game warfare in Desert storm I realised why the Army is the largest producer of video games.I met a Veteran once who played war games on line competitivly with other Vets globally.He blew my mind with a link to an active game(on a laptop)urban warfare was the worst pornography I have ever seen.
I think wars should be fought hand to hand,or not at all.The horrors of millions of deaths and millions of refugees millions more maimed ,heartbroken devestated by grief rage and fear just sickens me.We are so blind as a people and culture to the atrocities and utter barbarism of our Governments terrorism and hypocracy.
peace

You can purchase a radio controlled model airplane for around $50, to which you can then mount a cell phone with picture taking capabilities. Fly this around your neighborhood and see what happens.

If you crunch the numbers, which I've only estimated, Obama is already way ahead of Bush in Pakistan in terms of civilians killed per month. In fairness to Bush, he was focused on killing Iraqi civilians. But between Afghanistan and Pakistan, I'm sure Obama will easily surpass Bush's overall numbers of civilians slaughtered. Especially children. I hear Afghanistan is full of kids. Last I heard, 50% of the population is under age 15. I'm sure Obama will have considerable success on changing that ratio.

700 civilians to 14 Al Quaida leaders. I guess our fearless leaders think it's worth it. We're not going to be very happy if what goes around comes around.

When the people fear their government there is tyranny,
when the government fears the people there is liberty.
~ Thomas Jefferson

In pursuit of its policies the US has an utter lack of concern about civilian casualties - Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan.

This cheerful circumstance is a result of the republican democracy born in the dazzle of the Enlightenment, and embodying its reason and humanitarianism (not without crucial flaws), being inexorably choked off and gradually immersed in an atavistic and primitive violent tribal culture.

I'm not forgetting that our first president was a military general officer, and that the role of Commander-in-Chief of the nation's military was explicitly and deliberately assigned to the head of its civilian government.

Still, as evidenced by Washington's impeccable Farewell Address, it is arguable the the Founders intended even the president to function as a citizen-soldier in the classic tradition of Cincinnatus-- not as a Warlord governing civilian affairs on the side.

But blood, not brains or heart, prevailed over time, such that our presidents are now, first and foremost, Warlords. Newly-elected Warlords must perforce be ritually bathed and baptized in blood, and perform fearsome acts perpetrating violent death and destruction upon designated Foes, in order to ratify their authority with the institutions of government and the feckless citizenry.

There abides in Amerika a majority, or plurality, of unreflective, timid, and fearful yahoos likewise culturally indoctrinated to respect this ritual-- or, as the Warlord thinks of them: voters.

And without question, the corporate media esteems and hallows presidential warmongering as a test of the president's personal resolve and courage; the Beltway clique is formed by infotainwhores working for major corporate media outlets nationwide.

The reporters cheerfully line up like bookies filling the front rows at a prizefight-- or the Coliseum in Imperial Rome.

I'm reminded of a noteworthy bit from the writings of Hunter S. Thompson-- while attending a ceremony unveiling a portrait of former Secretary of State Dean Rusk, Thompson bitterly observed that neither the real Rusk nor the portrait revealed the essential truth that the man was steeped in blood up to his eyeballs.

So far, Obama's only steeped in blood up to his belly button. But he's a quick learner, and a hard worker. Perhaps his supporters ought to pitch in and give him the gift of a very LONG snorkel and mask-- he's gonna need it sooner than later.

· Yr Obd't Servant