U.S. drone strike on Yemen wedding party kills 17

Well, the message sent by those drone wars deployed indiscriminately is that this is your personal fight to the finish where principles don't play a role, and any opportunity is good opportunity. How is that building up sympathy for what seems like a personal feud at this point?

 

Yep, drone strikes are Al Qaeda's best recruiting tool.

 

I, for one, damn well was just as 'up in arms' against the absolutely stupid and unnecessary Iraq War venture by Bush as I am with Obama's continuing war drums beating. I am enraged in fact that the Obama supporters who were enraged at Bush's activities give Obama a free forking pass for doing the same thing, bearing in mind that Obama did his damnedest to gin up an unnecessary war venture against Syria. All that said, however, my current primary point of contention is the sloppy use of drone warfare or surgical strikes, if you will, that all too often turn out to be indiscriminate pot-luck butchery of civilians. That sickens me. Bush and Obama have both sickened me, and I am a former Cold War era military man who would have helped launch nuclear missiles against the Soviet Union during the Balance of Terror era. But that was doomsday stuff not this play a round of golf while -- oops! -- we just butchered a bunch of innocent civilians -- again -- amateur hour crap. All to what point, mind you?

By that I mean there is no stationary enemy to fight against. They are an anonymous amorphous 'enemy' worse than guerrilla forces since they are not restricted by borders. They can be anywhere on Earth. They can recruit via the Internet. Nobody has to go to any specific country in the Middle-East to receive training. Those civilians died for absolutely nothing, they died simply so that Obama could pound his chest and declare, "By God I am doing something!"

Yes? Doing what? You can wipe out every -- and I do mean every last stinking one of every terrorist cell leader and his entire freaking staff in any one region and it means diddly-squat because this is international in scope. Some affiliated group will simply shrug and move in the next day and we will have no idea who they are; and within a month they will be up and running in that region again. Murdering bunches of civilians simply because we want to 'look' like we are doing something is beyond juvenile and stupid and gradually it turns us into the bad guys; and not just in the eyes of the rest of the world . . . but for real; by the standards of any decent civilization.

 

As a fellow cold-war era military man who participated in the nuclear war planning process, I whole-heartedly endorse this post. And I'll add that I think the "war" on terror is nothing but a contrived power-grab that has worked spectacularly well for the traitorous scum-bags who thought it up. IMO, of course.

 

This was supposed to be a moment of reflection, not a moment a crocodile cried what? Don't you people fear anything besides higher taxes and arranged marriages?

 

Umm, not bombing a convoy full of civilians celebrating a wedding would be a good start.

 

This happens again and again, followed by acknowledgement it was wrong and we should be more careful, but then it does happen again. It's like your ego has been chipped and needs to be repaired with a simple ooops.

 

Yeah, stop killing people.

 

Thank you for understanding the thrust of my issue; and I think that instead of indulging in the temptation to add any other thoughts on this subject I will let it ride. Our fellow posters either understand or they do not. They either agree with us for the stated reasons or they do not. I generally disdain the, "If you weren't there then you cannot comprehend," argument, but perhaps this time it's simply the truth. We looked at things differently, and that era has been supplanted by another; but we endure and about some things regarding warfare our perspectives are not going to change. Different era, different experiences, different ways of looking at certain issues.

 

Who said anything about an invasion force. Spec Ops, undercover agents. You could even make it look like a tribal conflict.

But nooooo, fly a friggin predator drone in, violating their airspace, and launch a hellfire killing 17...

 

Well for starters, there really are quite a few differences between terrorists, jihadists and religious fanatics. I don't know about the first two but for the last one, religious reform is always possible. But taking on the whole stance of "killing every last of them" will surely make us look more hostile and in turn, make them more stubborn and impossible to change.

Don't forget George Bush looks like a nudist camp hippie to those guys on board of May Flower.

 

Hey I didn't compose that headline! I just copied it from the news.

 

Gee it's a shame that crusaders didn't fight a war with keyboards and joysticks...

Show me how drones can tackle Iraq better.

 

Yes, the only way to keep these people from bombing women and children is by...bombing women and children...uhhh, wait a second, that doesn't sound right, allow me to rephrase.

We have to bomb women and children to keep these people from bombing wome...yeah, nevermind...still makes no sense.

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Turning a blind eye just like Democrats are doing now...So next time someone says that Republicans and Democrats are essentially the same, you'll know what they mean.

 

They where peddling excuses and deflecting away from the fact that our government was killing innocent civilians, just like you're doing now.

 

Whoa there Tanto, we should be far happier knowing this president doesn't create terrorists like the last one did, as I have yet to hear the media cast such blame...

 

People too, plus they can do something a drone can't.

Your clumsy defense for Obama would only make him look worse.

 

Yes. Warfare isn't pretty, and if it's to be fought it must be fought with valor and honor. If we want the terrorist problem to end, we cannot win over "hearts and minds" as long as Al-Qaeda, Taliban, etc exist.

Look at Al-Maliki, corrupt drug warlord and no one in their right mind would listen to a guy like that. Are we really going to call that a reformed government?

According to many,including themselves: http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2006/12/neocons200612 They had abandoned Iraq in favor of the oil fields, of contractors, of good deals.

This is largely what has kept the war ongoing in Afghanistan as well. We cannot have a 10-year "deal" to protect Afghanistan, that's an epic waste of resources and it fails to Westernize the nation.

War is Conquest, and when the cause's right we can absolutely and must conquer.

[video=youtube;YqvNYfeaYuI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqvNYfeaYuI[/video]

There's no possible way that Iraq or Afghanistan can remain relatively Arabic while at the same time vanquishing extremist mentality. If we're serious about eliminating the threat, there's 2(and only 2) ways to go about it:

Either conquer these countries in the name of our honor, or we can focus on our National Defense.

9/11, Times Square, the Underwear bomber. All of these happened either at home or trying to target home. The answer is simple: To keep Arabic Nationals out of the country.

The solutions to the Terrorist Problem are solutions the Founders and other men of great wisdom have long understood. We cannot be politically correct in a time of war. Actually, neither in peacetime either. Our political correctness has robbed the country of that indivisible strength that once allowed us to triumph over a World Empire, at a time of only 300 men armed to fight.

Instead, we've been reduced to using WMD's instead of fighting the just war for the Republic and for its citizens.

 

Translation: I'm a liberal that are too wimpy to stand up for my beliefs.

 

Spot on. Just spot on. My goodness that's very insightful stuff. Obama is a totally wuss, he is neither brave and intelligent enough to go on an all out war agaisnt a nation like Iraq, nor strong and charismatic enough to substantially move away from all the mess altogether. Instead he chose right in the middle — like a typical wimp do.

 

people die during war, it's a ugly business

 

Right, so America sends drones out to kill people suspected of affiliation with Al Qaeda now? "We think you might be a bad guy so we're going to kill you, your family and your guests, just in case". Is that what America has become? And you wonder why people despise you?