America Kills Taliban Leader, Taliban Vows to Punish Pakistan

[jordan179]

On November 1st, a US drone did the whole world (and especially Pakistan) a favor by blowing up Hakimullah Mehsud, the previous commander of the Taliban in Pakistan.  According to Dera Ismail Khan in "New Taliban Leader Vows Revenge Attacks in Pakistan" (Reuters), on November 8th, the newly-named leader of the Taliban in Pakistan, Mullah Fazlullah

Comments

[jordan179]

Unfortunately, drones also tend to kill innocent civilians, including women and children.

Is that an honest complaint, or are you actually unaware that our drone attacks have tended to kill less innocent civilians per enemy fatality than do most airstrikes?

I also can easily see the government using drones on our own citizens right here at home in the near future.

Yes, they might. Indeed, they almost certainly will: drone technology is bound to be applied to domestic security and law enforcement.

This will happen whether or not we use drones against our enemies abroad.

[jordan179]

Are you saying then that you find it perfectly fine to have innocent people being killed so long as it is not you or anyone in your circle of family and friends?

I accept the reality that in warfare innocents will get killed as part of the price of killing enemies. This has been the nature of war since it began, and as our drone campaign has been more humanitarian than have been most campaigns of strategic bombardment, I am actually proud of our record in that regard.

If we swear off all military campaigns which kill innocents, then we must perforce swear off warfare in general. Doing so would only yield the world to our foes, almost all of whom are far less humanitarian than are ourselves.

We should not even be in other countries, ...

Shall I take it that you disapprove of all foreign alliances, and all interventions to protect or avenge anyone save American citizens?

... no one has attacked the United States of America, unless of course you actually believe the "official" account of 9/11.Of course I believe that Al Qaeda

[jordan179]

If you believe that only two towers fell on 9/11 ...

I'm quite aware that some other buildings were destroyed on 9/11, mostly because the two main towers of the World Trade Center in part fell on them.

... and that jet planes brought them down ...

There were numerous witnesses and lots of film footage of exactly that happening, plus aircraft debris found in the wreckage. In addition, the impacts and fires were adequate to cause the observed structural effects -- so that would be my operating assumption, yes. Though I do also have my Smaug Theory, which should indicate just how seriously I take the Truther nonsense.

... I will not waste my time since the even mainstream sources are now figuring out that the "official" account of 9/11 is pure bullshit.

It's much more plausible to believe in an American conspiracy involving hundreds of American officials to murder thousands of innocent Americans for murky ends than to believe that Muslim terrorists could attack us!

Al Qaeda? Our enemy?Yep. The one we've been fighting on and off

[marycatelli]

On route 91 where I drive off, alas some truthers decided that graffitti was real convincing.

You might appreciate this

[jordan179]

FWIW, I didn't delete his comments.

[jordan179]

To speak plainly, whether or not the government chooses to be unconstitutionally-violent towards its own citizens, or to limit itself to constitutional means of law enforcement, is going to be determined by politics, rather than by technology. The America of Coolidge and the Russia of Stalin were both at roughly the same technology level: the level of oppression experienced by the citizens of each was very different. And you're as dead if blown up by a howitzer, shot with a pistol, or skull bashed in with a billy club, as if blown up by a Hellfire missile fired from a Predator.

[ford_prefect42]

That is dependent on the people with guns.

There are 3 boxes that preserve liberty. Soap and Ballot have already failed. That leaves Ammo.

HOW do you intend to enforce the constitution and defunct bill of rights? By what means, when it's already been shredded and used for toilet paper?

[jordan179]

You're quite right regarding the reason why the government wants to disarm the American people.

Unfortunately, if we delude ourselves into believing that Islamic terrorism is primarly home-grown, home-inspired and home-directed, we will forever be unsafe against that danger to our liberty.

[jordan179]

The government most definitely does have the "power to choose" whether or not to be unconstitutionally-violent toward its own citizens. It does not have the Constitutional power to do so, but by definition if one is behaving "unconstitutionally" one is not being bound by the Constitution. You're failing basic logic here in your analysis.

And you've failed to explain why being killed by Hellfire from a Predator is worse than being killed by some other means. Do Hellfire missiles kill you double-dead, or something?

[gothelittle]

Well, that's why they're called "Hell" Fire, you know! I can't even read this guy's comments, and he's cracking me up.

[jordan179]

After I met his Truther nonsense with logic, he deleted all his comments in a fit of pique.