Would you prefer to be killed by a person or by a drone?

[Louis of PA]

Do drones receive stripes and medals for exceptional bravery and meritorious service? Do the families of drones worry about their safety? Can a drone retire after twenty years?
Regards

from newsmax.com

U.S. Drones Obliterate 24 Taliban Terrorists


Friday, March 13, 2009 8:22 AM

PESHAWAR, Pakistan – Taliban militants recovered 24 bodies and were searching for more on Friday, hours after suspected U.S. drones destroyed a camp in Pakistan's northwestern region, militants and officials said.

Four missiles believed to have been fired by at least two pilotless U.S. drone aircraft on Thursday evening hit a militant hideout and training camp in the Kurram tribal region on the Afghan border.

Soon after the attack a villager in the Barjo area said 14 people had been killed but an intelligence official and a Taliban official said on Friday the toll had gone up as militants sifted through the rubble of the seven-room training compound.

"We've so far found 24 bodies in the debris and we're still looking," a Taliban official in the ethnic Pashtun region said by telephone. He declined to be identified.

Pakistani security agents and the militant official said there were no senior militants, or "high value targets" among the dead. The Taliban official said those killed were Pakistani and Afghan.

U.S. drones have carried out more than 30 drone strikes since early 2008 when the United States, frustrated by an intensifying insurgency in Afghanistan getting support from the Pakistani side of the border, began attacking with greater frequency.

Eliminating militant support from the lawless northwestern Pakistani enclaves is seen as essential for winning the war in Afghanistan.

There has been no let-up in the strikes since the administration led by President Barack Obama took over in January, with six strikes since then, despite complaints from the Pakistani government.

Pakistan's civilian government, elected a year ago, and the army have complained that the U.S. missile strikes are counterproductive and the civilian casualties they often inflict have fueled support for the militants.

The drones, which have mostly struck in the North and South Waziristan regions, to the south of Kurram, have killed several mid-level al Qaeda members.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, unable to persuade the United States to stop the strikes, said last month he had asked the U.S. to transfer the unmanned aircraft to Pakistan.

Qureshi was in Washington to take part in the Obama administration's review of policy on Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The administration aims to have the main outlines of the strategy drawn up before a March 31 international conference on Afghanistan and a NATO summit in early April.

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Warning: This is a relatively older thread This discussion is older than 360 days. Some information contained in it may no longer be current.

[John Kepler]

"There is something completely terrifying about being hunted by an amazingly intelligent machine that only thinks of you as a target!" T. Clancy

[DnPRK]

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles don't employ weapons all by themselves. Its the USAF operators sitting at a console half a world away at Creech AFB a few miles northwest of Las Vegas, NV who ID the targets using the UAV's cameras and command the launch of Hellfire missiles. And its all done using the magic of satellite communications. Get some!

[Dan Wilson]

When I was in Afghanistan in 02 they sure didnt, and there are more UAV's now than ever and more widely used in location and operation.
The predators were launched from Pakistan
Flown initially by controllers in Pakistan
Control in Afghanistan was taken over by company men on temptation island (Masirah) and RTB was the reverse.
There were other theater bases hosting and controlling other UAV's as well

ACC doesn't own all the UAV's either nor do the have a monopoly on weaponized UAV's (and when did creech get a base named after him? he was a friggin dick).


Dan

[Dan In Indiana]

ACC doesn't own all the UAV's either nor do the have a monopoly on weaponized UAV's (and when did creech get a base named after him? he was a friggin dick).

June 20, 2005

OFC

[Carl R]

Who was Creech? Carl

[John Sukey (Deceased)]

Smile, you're on TV!

[Dan Wilson]

Well the only dealings I had with the jerk was when he was the commander of TAC in the mid 80's, he didn't like enlisted flight crew and went out of his way to let us know too.

Dan

[JB White]

I really don't care who's in charge or about who's flying what in regard to the opening question.

Would you prefer to be killed by a person or by a drone?

I would prefer not to be killed at all, thank you very much.

[lboos]

I would prefer to be kill'ed by a Jealous Husband on my 90th birthday.