5 ms·

Exactly what I remember reading all the time about the Afghanistan war - the OP calls the Palantir tool 'incredible technology' but the one thing I remember see

Exactly what I remember reading all the time about the Afghanistan war - the OP calls the Palantir tool 'incredible technology' but the one thing I remember seeing reported time and time and time again during that war was reports of strikes against civilians accidentally being targeted because their mobile phones had been nearby to insurgents (like maybe having visited the same mosque or the same family gathering)...

dogman144 1y ago
There’s some nuance to understand about targeting flows and precision strikes, and why “incredible” is suitable term to use. Not that what you list out didn’t occur, certainly
- defrost 1y ago
  "Tenuous" is the ever present flip side of the "incredible" assertion, of course.
- reactordev 1y ago
  Exactly. In military terms - Incredible means highly capable
- close04 1y ago
  > There’s some nuance to understand about targeting flows and precision strikes There's a lot of "nuance". From understanding that these systems will always "need" to target and strike, and they'll always find an enemy to strike at because it's their sole reason to exist, to the arbitrary definition of "precision" or "success". The entire system and philosophy become redundant without guaranteed targets and weak without guaranteed success. What it means today is that a random US citizen in the street can be a target, and arresting him up can mean success. Being infallible by definition is indeed incredible.
- StopDisinfo910 1y ago
  The only thing incredible about "targeting flow" and "precision strikes" is the genius of the pentagone propagandists who coined these expressions and managed to have people use them and somehow believe there is any kind of subtleties in the way this war was fought.
- michael1999 1y ago
  The number of times the US bombed a wedding because the comms traffic looks the same as a big op was evil.
andrepd 1y ago
I'm not a conspiracy theory person, but if I wanted to ensure a perpetuation of terrorism and consequently ever-present wars in the Middle East, I wouldn't do this any other way. Fucks like Bibi do this successfully (propping up Hamas in detriment of democratic movements). Why wouldn't the MIC do it as well?

dogman144 1y ago

There’s some nuance to understand about targeting flows and precision strikes, and why “incredible” is suitable term to use. Not that what you list out didn’t occur, certainly

defrost 1y ago
"Tenuous" is the ever present flip side of the "incredible" assertion, of course.
reactordev 1y ago
Exactly. In military terms - Incredible means highly capable
close04 1y ago
> There’s some nuance to understand about targeting flows and precision strikes There's a lot of "nuance". From understanding that these systems will always "need" to target and strike, and they'll always find an enemy to strike at because it's their sole reason to exist, to the arbitrary definition of "precision" or "success". The entire system and philosophy become redundant without guaranteed targets and weak without guaranteed success. What it means today is that a random US citizen in the street can be a target, and arresting him up can mean success. Being infallible by definition is indeed incredible.
StopDisinfo910 1y ago
The only thing incredible about "targeting flow" and "precision strikes" is the genius of the pentagone propagandists who coined these expressions and managed to have people use them and somehow believe there is any kind of subtleties in the way this war was fought.
michael1999 1y ago
The number of times the US bombed a wedding because the comms traffic looks the same as a big op was evil.

andrepd 1y ago

I'm not a conspiracy theory person, but if I wanted to ensure a perpetuation of terrorism and consequently ever-present wars in the Middle East, I wouldn't do this any other way. Fucks like Bibi do this successfully (propping up Hamas in detriment of democratic movements). Why wouldn't the MIC do it as well?