Saturday, October 15, 2011

Drone Kills a Marine and a Navy Medic

A Marine and a Navy medic killed by a U.S. drone airstrike were targeted when Marine commanders in Afghanistan mistook them for Taliban fighters, even though analysts watching the Predator’s video feed were uncertain whether the men were part of an enemy force, reports the Los Angeles Times.

Those are the findings of a Pentagon investigation of the first known case of friendly fire deaths involving an unmanned aircraft, the April 6 attack that killed Marine Staff Sgt. Jeremy Smith, 26, and Navy Hospitalman Benjamin D. Rast, 23, LaTi states.

One wonders how many non-American innocents have been killed by drone attacks. If we can't identify US soldiers, how the hell are we going to positively identify a target on the road from innocent Afghans, Pakistanis, etc.?

13 comments:

  1. "It is worth the cost." - Madeleine Albright.

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  2. How do we identify the innocents? We don't and don't care as long as they're not American. That's the problem and that's one reason why they hate us.

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  3. Perhaps American soldiers need a sign like this one:

    http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2011/10/dont-drone-me-bro.html

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  4. Too true, Travis. Sad, and sick. Seeing these kids born with deformities (likely caused by depleted uranium remnants) is heartbreaking.

    No wonder they hate us. I love my country, but it is becoming more like Germany circa 1933 every day.

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  5. Now they hate us for our freedoms and our malfunctioning drones.

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  6. Obviously (tragically) this motto is still the supreme law of the land:

    "Shoot 'em all, let God sort 'em out"

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  7. They hate us because if they wanted to see Americans, then they'd come to America.

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  8. Apparently drone operators (who wear flight suits during missions behind screens in a trailer) may have a higher rate of PTSD than among units actually serving in Iraq.

    See here - http://bigthink.com/ideas/13177

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  9. Moving beyond the killing of innocents….

    The fake Iranian assassination attempt is enough for O'Reilly who had blond bimbo attorney Megyn Kelly declare that it's completely constitutional for Obama to kill the Iranian leadership with drone missiles without any authorization from Congress:

    http://tinyurl.com/3wmgncb

    Therefore, I can see no constitutional reason why the president cannot order the murder of O’Reilly and Kelly with drone missiles. They both propagandize against the US because they obviously hate the constitution AND they widely and notoriously promote the use of terrorism (the drones).

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  10. The Obama doctrine, "Kill 'em all and let God sort them out."

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  11. Marines + medics = chattel

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  12. Forget black helicopters. The drones are coming. To skies over Illinois first.

    http://readme.readmedia.com/First-FAA-Approved-Unmanned-Flight-in-Civilian-Airspace-Set-for-Havana/3053903?utm_source=newswire&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=media_pr_emails

    (Source: No Agenda, Episode 348.

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