Droning on and on
So the military has come up with a new medal to be awarded to drone pilots. Without getting into the question of whether remotely piloting a drone from the safety of, say, Peoria deserves a medal at all, or the broader question of the ethics of drones in the first place, this seems a rather odd method of implementation:
"The new Distinguished Warfare Medal, announced on Feb. 13, will rank just below the Distinguished Flying Cross in the military’s official order of precedence. That means it will technically rank higher, and be worn on a uniform above, the Bronze Star with V device, which honors heroic conduct on the battlefield, as well as the Purple Heart, which is awarded to troops who are injured in battle." (Navy Times)
A petition to demote the medal has been posted on WhiteHouse.gov, if anyone is interested. They need 100K signatures by March 16 to get it officially addresed by the White House; as of today they're at about 17K. Feel free to spread the word, if you know people who might be interested.
Personally I'd prefer a petition to ban the damn things altogether, but hey, we do what we can...
"The new Distinguished Warfare Medal, announced on Feb. 13, will rank just below the Distinguished Flying Cross in the military’s official order of precedence. That means it will technically rank higher, and be worn on a uniform above, the Bronze Star with V device, which honors heroic conduct on the battlefield, as well as the Purple Heart, which is awarded to troops who are injured in battle." (Navy Times)
A petition to demote the medal has been posted on WhiteHouse.gov, if anyone is interested. They need 100K signatures by March 16 to get it officially addresed by the White House; as of today they're at about 17K. Feel free to spread the word, if you know people who might be interested.
Personally I'd prefer a petition to ban the damn things altogether, but hey, we do what we can...