AP IMPACT: study suggests drones kill far fewer civilians than many Pakistanis believe

[MadHound]

40. USA-USA-USA

Geez, you sound like the rest of the jingoist idiots in this country. Full of piss and vinegar, willing to kill others for no good reason.

Have you ever been to war? Have you ever cowered in fear as the bombs fell? Somehow I doubt it, otherwise you wouldn't be so consign others to death.

You don't get it, much like most of America doesn't get it, still doesn't get it, even though we've had our asses kicked, our noses rubbed in this type of shit before.

We are fighting in a battle of ideas, not bullets, but instead we brought an army to this battle of ideas, and are consequently losing this fight. You don't win a battle of ideas by killing people, but by coming up with better ideas. We faced this situation once before, in Vietnam, and we lost, badly.

Every person we kill means we're losing this war of ideas, because every death means that another person, at least, is turned against us. You don't win wars of ideas with bullets, but ideas(I suggest you read the Ugly American, an old, but still relevant classic). Sure, we can scorch the earth and call it peace, but all we're doing is creating problems for ourselves in the future. Have you no since of history? Why do you think these people are attacking us to begin with? Oh, yeah, because we've been fucking around in that part of the world for decades, killing innocents and destroying countries. You think that more of the same is going to solve the problem? You are woefully ignorant on this situation.

Two million dollars. $2,000,000. That is how much it would cost to prevent 911. Looking back, would you have paid two million dollars to prevent 911? You see, we used the Afghan people, the mujahideen, to fight our proxy war against the Soviets back in the late seventies and early eighties. We provided them with arms, supplies and money, but little humanitarian aid. Still these people(including bin Laden), fought on and beat the Soviets. Once the peace held, we left, left the Afghan people to bury their dead, left them to rebuild their country, which had been blown back to the Stone Age.

The mujahideen wanted, needed help, and turned to the US. But we wouldn't give it to them. The act that really pissed off bin Laden, the one thing that turned him against the West, was school funding. We, the richest country in the world, the one outside country who had benefited the most from the Afghan victory, refused to loosen our purse strings and provide two million dollars in order to build schools.

Two million dollars would have won that battle of ideas, and done immense good, bought immense good will. But instead we snapped the purse shut, pissing off bin Laden in the process, along with millions of Afghans. And setting the wheels in motion for 911. Action, reaction, cause, effect. When you are fighting a war of ideas, you need to consider the future ramifications of your actions.

We're still involved in that war of ideas, and we're still losing it badly. The only way we can win, the only way we can stop terrorism, is to stop the killing. Stop turning people against us out of rage and anger. Stop the killing, apologize for what we've done, and try to make amends.

Your portrayal of who we're fighting is woefully inaccurate. We aren't fighting "fascist terrorist&quot whatever that is), but rather ordinary human beings who suddenly find themselves being invaded by a much larger military power. After all, the actual number of al Qaeda, the actual number of the Taliban at the beginning of this war was laughingly small. Less than two thousand people all told. Yet we have unleashed our full military might on this country. What would you do if you were in their shoes? Oh, yeah, like most people, you would join the military and fight back. We're not talking terrorists here, we're talking about people fighting for their country. In fact, the Afghan people would, justifiably so, call us the terrorist, since we invade their country without good reason, use "Shock and Awe" to terrorize the people, and proceed to kill innocents and destroy a country, all for what? To bring justice to a literal handful of people? Sounds like terror to me.

And again, citing what political leaders, and even the brainwashed masses of American people, believe doesn't justify what we've done. After all, military and political leaders alike, Republican and Democrat, supported the Vietnam war for far too long. And the American people, well hell, just a few short years ago they voted a congenital idiot back into the highest office in the land.

Sadly however, you are like far too many Americans, ignorant of our history, ignorant of other people, and in possession of only one answer to any problems, the military. The trouble is, when the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a nail.

I suggest that you educate yourself, equip yourself with some other tools, so that you can start truly discerning what our problems are.