Comments on: ‘Worse Than Doing Nothing At All’

By: MikeD

MikeD — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 17:16:42 +0000

Conservatives love taking these type of positions shortly after governments they elect make hash out of the government they despise. They also play favorites among wars cf: David Frum’s new skepticism about Afghanistan.

By: wigwam

wigwam — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 09:43:45 +0000

IMHO, the collateral damage caused by our drones is horrific and both militarily and politically counterproductive, which makes it quite puzzling from a technical and operational perspective.

From what I’ve read and seen on the military channel, those drones are equipped with HellFire missles, which have a reputation for being quite accuracte. If that reputation is warranted, then the U.S. forces are persistently employing very sloppy targeting protocols in a theater of war where such targeting is indirectly killing Americans. So why are they doing it?

By: wigwam

wigwam — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 09:32:21 +0000

Here is what a site run by the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) and calling itself “Geneva Conventions, A reference guide,” says of “carpet bombing”:

carpet bombing

Area bombardments and other indiscriminate attacks are forbidden. If it becomes apparent that an objective is not a military one, or if an attack is expected to cause incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians or damage to civilian objects then the attack must be canceled or suspended. (Protocol I, Art. 57, Sec. 2b)

An indiscriminate attack affecting the civilian population or civilian objects and resulting in excessive loss of life, injury to civilians or damage to civilian objects is a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions. (Protocol I, Art. 85, Sec. 3)

However, the full text of Protocol I, Art. 57, Sec 2b reads:

(b) an attack shall be cancelled or suspended if it becomes apparent that the objective is not a military one or is subject to special protection or that the attack may be expected to cause incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians, damage to civilian objects, or a combination thereof, which would be excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated;

Note that SPJ’s comment on “carpet bombing” omits the portion of Protocol I, Art. 57, Sec 2b that I’ve highlighted.

By: macaquerman

macaquerman — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 05:40:24 +0000

c a r p e t ___ b o m b i n g

You could look it up while I’m busy killing kids vicariously.

By: chimpyissatan

chimpyissatan — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 05:33:17 +0000

Since you apparently can’t find the citations I’ve provided, I’ll read post 61 to you v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y. But not until you tell me exactly how many children can be mangled in drone attacks before it becomes unacceptable to you.

Only about 6% of the casualties caused by drones since 2006 have been “on target” and over 600 Afghani and Pakistani innocents have been killed as a result. But you sit there and type the same childish thing over and over. Must be nice for you to kill kids vicariously.

By: macaquerman

macaquerman — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 05:13:55 +0000

chimpy, type out a definition of carpet bombing, will you?

Then we’ll read it together.

By: chimpyissatan

chimpyissatan — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 05:05:08 +0000

What you’re advocating is, by the definition of international laws, cited twice above, carpet bombing and a war crime. Maybe you should do us a favor and develop some reading skills?

Glad you’re so comfortable with the administration of collective punishment and unquestioningly handing judge-jury-executioner powers over to historically unreliable and duplicitous surrogates and mercenaries.

How about the wounded kids, you fine with that too? Ya think it’s making us safer to blow the legs off of innocent children?

Your willingness to suspend disbelief in CIA duplicity is as galling as that of the pants-pissing Iraq war supporters in 2002. Were you down with that, too? Thought so.

By: macaquerman

macaquerman — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 04:16:07 +0000

chimpy, do us a favor and find a definition of carpet bombing.

Additionally, I’m so crazed with bloodlust that I think that killing Mehsud, his wife, and bodyguards isn’t an offense against humanity.

But please do find out what carpet bombing means.

By: bmaz

bmaz — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 04:05:44 +0000

Agreed with all that.

By: wigwam

wigwam — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 04:05:00 +0000

From what I heard from friends that were involved (a long time ago), the CIA is essentially two organizations:
– the Directorate of Operations, who are the guys that do shit like overthrowing democracies in Guatemala and Iran.
– the Directorate of Intelligence/Analysis, who are the scholars and spooks who try to figure out what’s what.

I don’t think that both should be in the same agency.