Hi Aqua,
Originally posted by AquaShrimp
Reapers take 2 people to fly. A pilot and a sensor operator. Drones don't take the risk out of warfare. They take the risk out for Americans. The enemy still gets killed horribly. There are alot of guys in Iraq in harm's way that I wouldn't mind one bit being stateside operating a robot.
The Army has something similar. A small tracked vehicle about the size of a lawn tractor that can mount an M240g and maybe a few other weapons.
Please trust me that there are few people more interested in not having our troops in harm's way than I am. Many of my beloved friends and congregants currently are, will be, or have been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan including one of my ruling elders. There are at least 5 families whom I would be the one to notify if anything happens to their loved ones. Even when they aren't directly in harm's way (and with asymetrical warfare it is increasingly difficult to have a "safe place in the rear" basically anywhere in the Dar-El-Islam is dangerous) they are still away for months on end from their families and that takes it toll.
Also, I am not currently worried about the development of any "Skynet" scenarios where our own technology wipes us out. My worry comes because of our own nature and because to a great extent war and killing should be terrible things that we only turn to with great hesitancy when they are absolutely necessary. People are created in the image of God with reasoning souls, and therefore there is a huge difference between killing a person and killing an animal. There is therefore a great advantage to war and killing being a difficult and dangerous exercise that we not love it nor turn to it to readily. It is already too easy for politicians to deploy cruise missiles as a cheap and simple way of dealing with difficult problems or simply to divert attention from domestic problems. For instance, the former president's missile attacks on Iraq, Sudan, Afghanistan etc. These did not cost any American lives, but neither did they do anything to accomplish any positive goals. Neither were they in any sense the way one wages a "just war" - they simply killed people in foreign countries.
Also, lest we forget, wars are actually
won and lasting peace is achieved by taking ground and removing dangerous governments and ideologies, not just killing individual foot soldiers. The idea, for instance, that we can
win the war against militant Islam by simply killing or capturing individual Jihadis once they enter the "war zone" using high tech weaponry is fundamentally flawed and actually dramatically extends the conflict and the amount of misery it will ultimately cause. In our case, it is a sure recipe for eventual defeat.
- SEAGOON
