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For years we have known that US drone strikes can very accurately kill anonymous people - often civilians (such as women and children): "Every independent inve
by peterwwillis 8y ago
For years we have known that US drone strikes can very accurately kill anonymous people - often civilians (such as women and children):
"Every independent investigation of the strikes has found far more civilian casualties than administration officials admit. Gradually, it has become clear that when operators in Nevada fire missiles into remote tribal territories on the other side of the world, they often do not know who they are killing, but are making an imperfect best guess." [1]
"Leaked military documents reveal that the vast majority of people killed have not been the intended targets, with approximately 13% of deaths being the intended targets, 81% being other "militants", and 6% being civilians." [2]
"strikes have killed 3,852 people, 476 of them civilians. But those counts, based on news accounts and some on-the-ground interviews, are considered very rough estimates" [1]
Not only that, we bomb inside of countries that are (sort of?) our allies, without informing them and without their consent:
"Pakistan's Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, has repeatedly demanded an end to the strikes, stating: "The use of drones is not only a continual violation of our territorial integrity but also detrimental to our resolve and efforts at eliminating terrorism from our country" [2]
[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/24/world/asia/drone-strikes-reveal-uncomfortable-truth-us-is-often-unsure-about-who-will-die.html https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/24/world/asia/drone-strikes-... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drone_strikes_in_Pakistan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drone_strikes_in_Pakistan
Yeah, I have no problem calling our military evil.
- nunya213 8y agoEvil would be intentionally targeting civilians. You are simply deluded.
- kaybe 8y agoIt's not that simple, sadly.
- vkou 8y agoSo, as long as I'm thinking good thoughts, when I'm doing something evil, I am not evil?
- nunya213 8y agoYour thoughts don't matter, your intent does. The whole "The Military is like so evil maaaaan" shit is so 1969, grow up.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- vkou 8y agoThere's a long list of atrocities in human history that have been committed with the best - or at least, good, or at worst, neutral intentions. Perhaps we should judge organizations based on what they actually do, as opposed to what they intend to do, or what they tell themselves they intend to do.
- nunya213 8y agoDo you know why there is a difference between Manslaughter and Murder in the legal code? For the same reason that your statement is absurd. If you don't understand that then we have nothing else to discuss.
- peterwwillis 8y agoThey are intentionally bombing targets when they don't know who the target is. They don't know if it's a civilian, but they kill 'em anyway. 87% of the time.
- nunya213 8y agoThat's not what I said, that's what you are saying, without evidence to back it up I might add. I doubt you are privy to military briefings where they make these decisions. Your argument is quite childlike.
- wilsonnb 8y agoWell, you should have a problem with calling them evil based on a few actions that you consider evil without taking all of the other things the US has done into account. Doing one evil thing doesn't necessarily make someone evil. Doing a few evil things doesn't necessarily make someone evil either. If a doctor who has saved thousands kills one person, are they evil? What if that person was a convicted child rapist? What if it was in self defense? What if killing them would save a thousand more? What if killing them would save 10,000 more but the doctor doesn't care about that and would have killed them anyways? Deciding whether a single person is good or evil is a very complex process. Deciding whether a country or a military is good or evil is enormously more complex and needs to take a lot more into account that you just did.