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"The guys we blew up with a drone were definitely jihadists."

by throwway120385 1y ago

red-iron-pine 1y ago
some of them were definitely jihadists. but the other half of the wedding party they hit were not...
- brandonmenc 1y ago
  Next time a jihadist invites you to their wedding... politely decline.
  - mothballed 1y ago
    At one point I volunteered to join an anti-jihadist Syrian militia (YPG) that was backed by the US government. When I returned to the US, they flagged my passport (and interrogated me everytime I crossed a border for about a decade).... thinking I was a jihadist. So yeah consider that the government is so dumb that one half of the government thinks the secular anti-jihadist militias supported by the other half of government are actually jihadists.
    - anigbrowl 1y ago
      They don't care about that. They care about the fact that you now have irregular warfare experience. Their morals are wholly situational, so they assume the same is true of everyone else. It's not a terrible assumption; if you study extremist circles for long enough you come across examples of people who completely flip sides because they were only ever in it for the extralegal opportunities. Of course, you can find similar chameleons in politics.
IAmBroom 1y ago
Not any better, nor different, than a missile from a piloted plane, or a guided missile. Yes, the current administration is morally capable of destroying random ships to claim victories over "bad guys". But they always had that ability.
- Spooky23 1y ago
  No, it’s not. Whataboutism is collaborating. Don’t be that guy. The difference with this administration is that they aren’t even pretending to follow the nominal controls or rules to wield that force. There was a legal concept around the drone/missile/commando/aerial strikes to assassinate targeted individuals in the Middle East. The morality of that action was dubious at best, but what’s happening in the Caribbean doesn’t even meet that very low moral, ethical, or legal bar. This administration, with their craven collaborators on the Supreme Court, is solely focused on asserting virtually unlimited executive power to a fairly obvious end.
- nonford150 1y ago
  As was the administrations of Clinton and Obama. The real issue is they (whomever is currently in power) can do these things, and there's nothing we can do to stop it from happening.

"The guys we blew up with a drone were definitely jihadists."

red-iron-pine 1y ago

some of them were definitely jihadists. but the other half of the wedding party they hit were not...

brandonmenc 1y ago
Next time a jihadist invites you to their wedding... politely decline.
- mothballed 1y ago
  At one point I volunteered to join an anti-jihadist Syrian militia (YPG) that was backed by the US government. When I returned to the US, they flagged my passport (and interrogated me everytime I crossed a border for about a decade).... thinking I was a jihadist. So yeah consider that the government is so dumb that one half of the government thinks the secular anti-jihadist militias supported by the other half of government are actually jihadists.
  - anigbrowl 1y ago
    They don't care about that. They care about the fact that you now have irregular warfare experience. Their morals are wholly situational, so they assume the same is true of everyone else. It's not a terrible assumption; if you study extremist circles for long enough you come across examples of people who completely flip sides because they were only ever in it for the extralegal opportunities. Of course, you can find similar chameleons in politics.

IAmBroom 1y ago

Not any better, nor different, than a missile from a piloted plane, or a guided missile. Yes, the current administration is morally capable of destroying random ships to claim victories over "bad guys". But they always had that ability.

Spooky23 1y ago
No, it’s not. Whataboutism is collaborating. Don’t be that guy. The difference with this administration is that they aren’t even pretending to follow the nominal controls or rules to wield that force. There was a legal concept around the drone/missile/commando/aerial strikes to assassinate targeted individuals in the Middle East. The morality of that action was dubious at best, but what’s happening in the Caribbean doesn’t even meet that very low moral, ethical, or legal bar. This administration, with their craven collaborators on the Supreme Court, is solely focused on asserting virtually unlimited executive power to a fairly obvious end.
nonford150 1y ago
As was the administrations of Clinton and Obama. The real issue is they (whomever is currently in power) can do these things, and there's nothing we can do to stop it from happening.