Robot Air Attack Squadron Bound for Iraq

[Oscar]

July 16, 2007

Re: Robot Air Attack Squadron Bound for Iraq
http://www.abcnews.go.com/International ... id=3379446

There seems to be no end to the horrific instruments of war that the merchants of death invent, construct, test, refine, and deploy. Unmanned robotic jet fighters--no human beings will be killed, except, of course, for the people on the ground, blown to bits by the dropped mega-bombs.

Note that "The (Grim?) Reaper," as this new exercise in madness is so aptly called, will first be deployed in Afghanistan.

It will provide coverage not only for the NATO-led coalition but, even more importantly, for the soldiers who are normally airbrushed out of stories about Afghanistan: the some 8,000 to 10,000 U.S. troops who are mobilised throughout the country, working quite independently from the UN-operation, getting on, or so it is said, with the ever-so-urgent task of extirpating Al Qaeda and killing Osama Bin Laden.

Jet planes without men (without women) are jet planes without a moral centre--good or bad; they can be operated with impunity thousands of miles away from a control centre (see photograph) in Nevada!

If you don't actually see who you are killing, you can't feel (or so I would suppose) anything.

Thus the human being itself [sic] turns into a robot, manipulated by its masters, as The Grim Reaper does it dirty work far far away in the killing fields.

Is the nation that created this monstrosity one that we want to have as our ally in the 'war against terror' / 'war of occupation'?

I doubt it.

Today I received in the print mail an official definition of what constitutes terrorism.

"Terrorism means an ideologically motivated unlawful act or acts, including but not limited to the use of violence or force or threat of violence or force, committed by or on behalf of any group(s), organisation(s) or government(s) for the purpose of influencing any government and / or instilling fear in the public or a section of the public."

I take this definition as being irrefutable: it appears on no less important a document than the insurance renewal policy for my cottage--buried, as it were, on the penultimate page (so people won't read it?) under the heading, "Terrorism Exclusion Endorsement."

If I recollect correctly, I first read this definition shortly after what the Americans have reified as '9/11' in an official document produced by that formidable (and tentacular) "organisation" known as the CIA.

If you engage in terrorism, you should know how to define it with a fair degree of precision.

Denis Salter
Professor of Theatre
McGill University

============================

Robot Air Attack Squadron Bound for Iraq

http://www.abcnews.go.com/International ... id=3379446

Jul 15, 6:22 PM EDT

By CHARLES J. HANLEY
Associated Press Special Correspondent

BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq (AP) -- The airplane is the size of a jet fighter, powered by a turboprop engine, able to fly at 300 mph and reach 50,000 feet. It's outfitted with infrared, laser and radar targeting, and with a ton and a half of guided bombs and missiles.

The Reaper is loaded, but there's no one on board. Its pilot, as it bombs targets in Iraq, will sit at a video console 7,000 miles away in Nevada.

The arrival of these outsized U.S. "hunter-killer" drones, in aviation history's first robot attack squadron, will be a watershed moment even in an Iraq that has seen too many innovative ways to hunt and kill.

That moment, one the Air Force will likely low-key, is expected "soon," says the regional U.S. air commander. How soon? "We're still working that," Lt. Gen. Gary North said in an interview.

The Reaper's first combat deployment is expected in Afghanistan, and senior Air Force officers estimate it will land in Iraq sometime between this fall and next spring. They look forward to it.

"With more Reapers, I could send manned airplanes home," North said.

The Associated Press has learned that the Air Force is building a 400,000-square-foot expansion of the concrete ramp area now used for Predator drones here at Balad, the biggest U.S. air base in Iraq, 50 miles north of Baghdad. That new staging area could be turned over to Reapers.

It's another sign that the Air Force is planning for an extended stay in Iraq, supporting Iraqi government forces in any continuing conflict, even if U.S. ground troops are drawn down in the coming years.

Full story:

http://www.abcnews.go.com/International ... id=3379446