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NEWS > U.S.A. > U.S. ARMY PREPARING TO USE SUICIDE PREDATOR DRONES IN PAKISTAN
U.S. ARMY PREPARING TO USE SUICIDE PREDATOR DRONES IN PAKISTAN
October 19 2011
Washington, D.C. – While the notion of dying for one’s cause has certainly fallen out of favour in recent decades, the tradition has a long history in warfare. While most consider the acts of suicide bombers little more than cowardice, such a thing would not be said about the Japanese kamikaze pilots of World War II despite the process being very, very similar.
In fact, the notion of throwing soldiers into battle knowing they are going to die is a tried and true method of warfare from nearly beginning. Even looking at the pieces of a chessboard, a game inspired by war, the first things to go are the pawns. That is what they are designed to do.
Now, despite constant rhetoric against such techniques, the U.S. army has apparently started to utilize such methods for their own cause, prepping suicide drone ships that are designed to simply crash into a target, creating an interesting dilemma for the government and possibly putting them on the other side of the moral conflict for the first time in the war.
“Upon confirming the target using the live video feed, the operator then sends a command to the air vehicle to arm it and lock its trajectory onto the target,” said the manufacturer of the new drone, AeroVironment. “Flying quietly at high speed the Switchblade delivers its onboard explosive payload with precision while minimizing collateral damage.”
Traditional Predator drones carry missiles and bombs to take out their targets. The new drones are much smaller and are themselves a bomb. Upon finding a target, the drone will slam into the subject killing both him and itself instantly.
It’s not clear if the military has a policy on recovering the drone parts and returning them to the company who built them.
“This method of suicide killings has long been a part of war. It has fallen out of favour partially because it is used by terrorists to kill civilians and partly because it’s a way to demonize the bad guys, but it has been a standard throughout centuries of warfare and the U.S. is only living up to that tradition,” said Scrape TV International Conflict analyst Mario Martinez. “It is a tool in any militaries arsenal that the U.S. has been very reticent to use for a number of reasons, but it appears that they have gotten over that hump. Now they will be able to fully let loose on the enemy.”
It’s not clear if the new drones know exactly what they are signing up for.
“Getting this past the American people will be tough, but easier than if they were using actual people. There will still be trauma for the operators, sitting back in Arizona, when that explosion hits but it is still far less detrimental than actually strapping bombs to an American and having him blow himself up,” continued Martinez. “It’s good to see that they are willing to utilize these methods, that they are not bound by the kind of moral or ethical groundwork that has been laid and are willing to do what it takes to win the war. It might carry a cost in the long term, but war always does.”
It’s believed that the new program is volunteer only.
Mike Michaels, American Correspondent
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