General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: The Rude Pundit - Of Kill Lists, Drones, and Presidents [View all]Nuclear Unicorn
(19,497 posts)I tried to read the rest. I skimmed it in a sincere effort to give it a fair reading but it's just too dumb. I mean really dumb. As in IQ-siphoning dumb.
Raping robots? Seriously? Obviously this is an analogy for the killing that takes place during a war. As rape and murder are considered equal in the degree of atrocity the one is analogous to the other.
But that's a gross mischaracterization of war. The deliberate, calculated and methodical taking of human life is not the same as rape in every circumstance. When the bath salts cannibal was shot he was killed by a police officer armed for the express purpose that (s)he might have to take human life. The officer was sent to training ranges to learn to shoot and given rules to decide -- absent any immediate ajudication by others -- on when it would be appropriate to kill a human being.
War, on a larger scale, is two population groups combating each other. Whatever their grievance, be it control of resources, pride or ideology they cannot resolve their differences peaceably. The only resolution is to simply end the existence of one party or the other or at least to proceed on that course until one party capitulates.
Rape isn't the objective (Spare me the deliberate rape warcrime stories, I know; I'm speaking in the most essential terms). Ending the existence of the other party is the objective. You cannot secure the resource, assuage the insult or sweep away the opposing ideology while the other belligerent is dead or surrenders.
FDR didn't approve the dropping of dildos on Gerrman and Japanese cities; he approved the fire bombing of them to destroy their ability fight by killing as many people as possible and their industries. Tens of thousands died trying to destroy a ball bearing plant because those tiny round pieces of metal were used to build tanks and planes. It made more sense to go after the BBs than the tanks and planes once they were operational and why bomb a tank factory then bomb a plane factory when the one factory making BBs were essential to both.
The tens of thousands that died in those bombing runs were mostly civilians. From what I've read the Allied bombers being shot down did more damage to the factory than the bombs themselves which fell mostly away from their intended target. I'm sure the German pilots that raced skyward to fend off the Allied bombers felt sick at the sight of their country glowing in the night, not out of love of Hitler or his madness but because their friends and families were caught in that glow. I wouldn't expect anything short of their hatred for us.
So Obama is sending drones out. And he's taking personal responsibility for who is targeted rather than consigning the responsibility to some third tier functionary to insulate himself beneath a cloak of "plausible deniability." The fact is, there are people out there trying to do harm. They cannot be convinced to peaceably end their efforts. Rather than chase after tens of thousands individual guerillas it makes more sense to go after the people who guide, plan and supply those efforts -- they are, metaphorically, the ball bearings that make the rest of the machines run. Instead of dozens of bombers flown by hundreds of men dropping thousands of bombs that kill tens of thousands of civilians over the course of hours a single missile is sent to a single car or building and it hits 90% of the time or better.
Yeah, people are dying. It's gut-wrenching just to think about it. I don't want to equivocate or diminish that fact. "War is Hell," one general once remarked. He said it in reply to the elders of the city of Atlanta who pleaded with him to spare the city. Nonetheless, he ordered the city burned to the ground because they refused to surrender it to him and he was determined to break the slavers once and for all. They were at an impasse in their respective goals so force was used to settle what could/would not be mutually, morally agreed to.
But please, none of this prattling nonsense that Obama is ordering the moral equivalent of robotic rape attacks. It fails even on its own terms.