The US State Department announces that it has a fleet of drone planes. What next?
Drones Ahoy
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication and WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a contributor to Centerclip and co-host of "The Final Countdown" talk show on Radio Sputnik. He is a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "2024: Revisited."
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Hey Hey Ho Ho These Unmanned Drones Have Got To Go!!
I’m starting a petition at change.org to politely ask the government to not use unmanned drones on civilian populations. Once I get a 1,000 signatures, that ought to do it. Then we hit the streets when my 10-ft drone replica made of cardboard will get people’s attention. Especially when couple with my hey hey ho ho chant.
I’ll just kick back with a beer and watch on my HD TV as change happens! The revolution will not be tweeted!
Well the police already had them unarmed: http://www.theatlanticcities.com/technology/2011/11/drones-force/503/ …now they are getting armed ones: http://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/texas-county-police-buys-drone-can-carry-weapons
Excellent. Blowback from world policing will eventually come back to haunt Americans, but of course, conservatives will only oppose if a Dem is sitting at the WH, and liberals will only find fault with it if a Repub is the current Murderer-in-chief.
Meanwhile, the immoral and useless embargo against Cuba celebrates its 50th aniversary, and the only one of the five possible future POTUS to oppose it is considered a “loonie” by conservatives, liberals and even y’all Commies, who purportedly agree with him on most foreign policy, civil rights and privacy rights issues. Wacko indeed.
Be careful ex’ – remember that running around with a replica gun or weapon and demanding things can be misinterpreted as doing the real thing, and the misdirected forces at work (only fondling they orders and doing they job) may THX-1138 you away!
Sweet, now they can call civilians without all that nasty business of having people know who the individual who did it was
Crap. Now I’m going to have to upgrade my tinfoil beanie to the new stealth-they-cant-spot-me-from-above-now model. Technology marches on.
I am from Springfield Illinois and there really is a Noonan’s True Value Hardware. In fact, I actually know the owner, Mike Noonan. While the city of Springfield is eminently pick-on-able (it’s very conservative and usually wrong on all the issues), I am amazed that anyone outside of a 10-mile radius of Springfield knows that Noonan’s True Value Hardware exists. How did this come to happen? PS > Mike Noonan is a nice guy, I bet if he did sell drones, it would be at a reasonable price.
The first squadron of armed drones was deployed in Afghanistan in 2002, though piloted from Nevada. Read Peter W Singer’s highly informative Wired For War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century (2009). Interesting question: does this make Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada into a legitimate military target?
Wouldn’t it be better to have people from Noonan’s True Value Hardware patrolling the skies over, say, Fresno California, rather than over central Illinois ? After all, they may have compunctions about blowing up people they know, but dropping bombs on people half a continent away may not be much more difficult than dropping them on people half a world away. Of course, if the police, where a certain selection for sadism may be assumed to take place when recruiting personnel, were to be placed in charge of these drones rather than the good folks at Noonan’s, these considerations would not apply. Indeed, if the employment picture continues to worsen, they might no longer apply to anyone….
Henri