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Cool job? Being ordered to drop bombs on schools filled with children doesn't seems like a cool job..
by sschueller 7mo ago
Cool job? Being ordered to drop bombs on schools filled with children doesn't seems like a cool job..
- JasonADrury 7mo agoI'll spell it out: A lot of air force pilots in these countries end up being rich kids who do it because it's a fun hobby, not motivated soldiers. Because many of these people see it as a fun hobby, they don't spend much time worrying about potentially being ordered to drop bombs on schools filled with children. It's rather unlikely that their government would order them to do so anyway, compare a list of countries being hit by Iran with a list of countries bombing Iran.
- singleshot_ 7mo agoWhen you say, “these countries,” I imagine you include the United States, where politically connected youngsters like George W. Bush secured and then ignored jet interceptor training during the 1960s?
- JasonADrury 7mo agoBe that as it may, I think we can agree that the USAF is not the same as the air forces of the Gulf countries.
- baybal2 7mo ago[dead]
- mvdtnz 7mo agoNot everyone agrees that America is special. You haven't convincingly won a conflict in how long, so we're not really convinced your military is as exceptional as you like to say.
- JasonADrury 7mo agoI'm not American
- true_religion 7mo agoI would include the USA, with the caveat that in the US being sent to the military is often seen as a punishment for rich children where as in the Middle East being sent to the military can be an opportunity to build an independent power base for yourself or your family.
- nradov 7mo agoThe USA has a volunteer military. Occasionally there are cases where the criminal court system might agree to dismiss a minor charge if the defendant enlists. But that doesn't happen to rich people, or those joining as commissioned officers (pilot track).
- true_religion 7mo agoThis is all true but I can’t see how it’s relevant to why I said.
- morkalork 7mo agoAir force pilots are the modern day knights of the sky. Also, up until WW2, which social class you were from determined whether or not you were going to be an officer or canon fodder so rich kids swooping their way into being captains is historically normal.
- breppp 7mo agoActually during the time when the nobility went to be fighter pilots it was a suicidal role with very low survival rates (ww1)
- morkalork 7mo agoIncidentally: TIL George Bush Jr was an airforce pilot. Hah.
- seanmcdirmid 7mo agoAir national guard. He didn't want to go to Vietnam, so he (or his father) used his connections to join the weekend warriors. One of my uncles did something similar (while my dad got drafted in the army and went to Vietnam).
- kakacik 7mo agoWhat does that have to do with anything? They went through training in different times when conflicts were not on their plate. During peace it is a cool job, you know not every air force around the world bombs schools, in fact most don't. Anybody who ever went through arab countries with eyes opened saw the massive nepotism and corruption at all levels. Army/air force ain't immune to this, in contrary. Do you think ie some general or politician's first son would be treated and pushed up same as common folks?
- esseph 7mo ago> Cool job? Being ordered to drop bombs on schools filled with children doesn't seems like a cool job.. That was a launched cruise missile from a ship, targeted by an LLM. Apparently the grounds USED to be a valid military target long ago (a decade? I'm not sure exactly) and now there's a school there.
- dgroshev 7mo ago> targeted by an LLM I don't think it's a known fact at this point.
- esseph 7mo agoI'm not sure what's better/worse: 1. A LLM did the targeting 2. Targets were selected and evaluated by humans and the many-years old change of building shape and purpose didn't get caught during target eval.
- esseph 7mo agohttps://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2026/03/04/anthropic-ai-iran-campaign/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2026/03/04/anthrop... https://defensescoop.com/2026/03/11/us-military-using-ai-against-iran-operation-epic-fury-adm-cooper/ https://defensescoop.com/2026/03/11/us-military-using-ai-aga... https://www.democracynow.org/2026/3/3/headlines/pentagon_used_claude_ai_to_attack_iran_just_hours_after_trumps_ban_on_anthropic https://www.democracynow.org/2026/3/3/headlines/pentagon_use...
- dgroshev 7mo agoNone of those articles elaborates on how that particular target was selected, which is the claim the GP made. There's a difference between "Pentagon uses AI for targeting" and "AI selected a school as a legitimate target". Ted Bundy drove a car. Cars kill people. Doesn't mean that Ted Bundy was killing people by running them over.
- sschueller 7mo agoTaking out the human factor makes it so much worse. Building an LLM is one thing but building one specifically to pick targets is another. For me knowing that my actions may have contributed direcly to the death of anyone is not something I want to live with.
- axus 7mo agoIt's a "high status" job. Doing the high status jobs correctly isn't always easy.
- dylan604 7mo agoPilots are not told they are dropping bombs on a school filled with kids. They are told it is a headquarters or storage or bunker or whatever.
- anonymousiam 7mo agoAnother example of using children to shield a military target. (The USA has done the same thing in the past. For example; Aviation High School was located on the same parcel as TRW.) In the case you're presumably referring to, no fighter pilots were involved. A Tomahawk missile was launched from a US naval vessel, aimed at a military site next door to the girls school.