Sunday, December 30, 2012

The End of the Drone?


With the supposed capture of another American drone in early December, Con Coughlin declared…

The End of the drone is nigh
“…the drone is no longer the undisputed master of the skies (Con Coughlin
He may be jumping the gun a bit, but the longer we use any technology, the greater the odds the bad guys will figure out ways around it or how to defeat it.

And I say good. Why? Because doing anything with impunity makes you lazy and stupid. There is no cheap and easy way to kill people, even people who need killing. There is always a price to be paid. If your force is overwhelming, but the enemy is good at propaganda, your successes will become moral failures as they perform PR jujitsu on you. Like Gary Cooper in High Noon, you’ll soon find the townsfolk have all turned against you.

We lack humility, and wielding a multi-billion dollar sledgehammer has contributed to our lack of imagination. Yes, we must sometimes do violence, but only when absolutely necessary, and we need to do it with eyes wide open, and well aware of all the consequences. 

 May God grant that always and forever we are the most powerful nation on the planet, but may he grant us humility and wisdom to unsheathe the sword only when absolutely necessary.

16 comments:

Beamish said...

Weeping for expendible hardware?

Hugh Farnham said...

I was at a JAG / LOAC briefing a few months ago where some lawyer Captain told us if you see three or more local men of military age hanging around in the AOR without weapons or obvious hostile intent a UAV operator can drop a munition on them. They can be classified as "militants" from 20,000 feet and then it's weapons hot.

I was slack-jawed. A few times in life you are told things so out of the realm of reasonable it takes a few minutes to digest what you are heard. But there it was, on his projected slides and in the unclassified handouts in my hand. Let's just say this Captain and I had a lively discussion.

This from the same lawyer who said it was fine for military to dig up open source information on random Americans, as long as it was for "training purposes". I told those in my charge this was in a serious gray area and to only do OSINT on themselves until we received competent legal advice from higher up.

Wake up, people.

While I am all for use of force against our enemies, violations of standing principles of war will in time beget horrible unintended consequences here at home.

Think those DHS / INS MQ-9's flying around domestically are unarmed? American citizen eyewitnesses I know say otherwise.

Bunkerville said...

I doubt there will be many new weapons to worry about. What we have or will have is done. Duck and cover is the order of the day.

conservativesonfire said...

When governments decide they are God, the end can not be far away.

Hugh Farnham said...

I understand some of my comments may cause disbelief. Here's some interesting open source links:





Hugh Farnham said...

Seems like Discus doesn't like html code and links. http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/06/u-s-labels-all-young-men-in-battle-zones-as-militants-and-american-soil-is-now-considered-a-battle-zone.html

FreeThinke said...

Grant and Sherman understood that what-we-would-call The Utilitarian Approach today is really the kindest way to wage a war, if war must be waged.


That means the modern concept of "limited" or "morally justifiable" warfare is really the cruelest of policies, because it PROLONGS the AGONY interminably. Everyone on both sides of the conflict winds up a loser with this "enlightened" approach.


I am against war, but at the same time I realize it is absurd to imagine any war could be brought to a successful conclusion when "our side" sedulously observes "The Marquis of Queensbury Rules" while the other fights with unprincipled, unchecked savagery and feral cunning.


Weapons of "Defense" should be used only after we've been attacked. From then on it should be used unreservedly with TOTAL DEFEAT and HUMILIATION of the AtTACKER the ONLY goal.


The Welfare-Warfare State in which we presently live is morally and economically unjustifiable as well as insane.

FreeThinke said...

I've become cynically enough to find them totally credible. Sad, isn't it?

FreeThinke said...

I've never learned how to post a "hot" link, but so far the HTML devices are working well for me in this new format.


One of the things I like about this change is the new ability to respond directly to specific posts, as I am doing right now.


I do wish the standard font were larger and darker, but we can live with it as it is, I'm sure.

viburnum said...

I've always thought that they would have been far more effective had their capabilities remained secret, and used far more sparingly.
Remember when we just missed Ayman al-Zawahiri ? I wondered at the time whether that was intentional, as it surely had him looking around wondering how we knew he'd be there. Sowing suspicion and distrust is far more disruptive than taking out someone easily replaced.

Silverfiddle said...

Well stated. Go big or go home. These wars by dribs and drabs only serve to inflame our enemies and destroy our own souls while engendering hatred against us.

viburnum said...

Yep. Sherman said it best: "“War is the remedy that our enemies have chosen, and I say let us give them all they want, so that generations shall pass away before they ever have recourse to it again.”

Rob O'Daniel said...

I suspect that the technological innovations (like drones) that allow armchair warfare are one of the chief reasons that we so casually wage war. When you can do battle with a joystick, it's gotten far too easy...

War -should- be messy and personal and costly on every level.

Maybe if it were a prerequisite that to be a member of Congress or the President's cabinet that you must have an immediate family member in the military, the policy-makers wouldn't be so quick to place servicemen into harm's way.

Hugh Farnham said...

Robert Heinlein wrote a novel called Starship Troopers that described a federal republic like that - to vote you had to do time (usually in the military) and then received your citizenship. Interesting concept - those who sacrifice for the body politic are the ones to guide it later on in life. I believe the educational system is the cornerstone to a solid republic. That's why libs infested it first.

KP said...

SF, this is an example of why I enjoy your writing so much. For me, this article is spot on and at the same time is out of the box. I would not have been able to write this piece, but after reading it I wish I would have. Happy New Year, brother SF, and keep us thinking in 2013.

Silverfiddle said...

Thank you KP! I wish you and yours a happy new year as well!