Slashdot Mirror
First Armed Robots on Patrol in Iraq
An anonymous reader writes "Robots have been roaming Iraq, since shortly after the war began. Now, for the first time — the first time in any war zone — the 'bots are carrying guns. The SWORDS robots, armed with M249 machine guns, "haven't fired their weapons yet," an Army official says. "But that'll be happening soon." The machines have actually been ready for a while, but safety concerns kept them off the battlefield. Now, the robots have kill switches, so "now we can kill the unit if it goes crazy," according to the Army. I feel safer already."
That is the stupidest thing in history.
The guy that the 'robots' aka, Grasshopper on steroids with a gun, even sounds the same; drops his gun when it comes up on him.
Anyone notice that to hold the recoil the gun doesn't aim DOWN?
A.k.a. he could hit the ground, roll over to it, and flip it over; what does it weigh? 80lbs?
Then drop a grenade in it's control box and give the operator the finger before running away
Those guys are SO limited it is ridiculous
10k$ for a toilet seat people, continue about your business....
"This seems like it'd be a great idea in Iraq - breach a door"
and get hit with a chair. Millions of taxpayers dollars lost to breach a door lost to a $5 dollar chair.
"I have to wonder how it takes a grenade hit.."
Explosively I would guess. It's not really armored well and could easily be taken out with an AK47. But hey, it fills some contractors pockets while he sits on the beach soaking in the sun laughing his ass off about how stupid we were to buy those pieces of shit.
If you want a practical use of a robot and a gun, look no further than the movie Aliens. A sentry gun with a simple motion sensor is much more useful. Sure it won't breach a door but it sure as hell could slow down a mob of incoming enemies. I have to state "slow down" since humans will still quickly dispatch of it.
These machines are pure evil. they would kill women and children all day until it ran out of batteries or ammo. They were designed in Israel to climb stairs, break down doors, and be able to read an id tag from 100 feet away. As it is, it takes only one nutty officer/hacker to make one of these things commit mass murder. However it's only a matter of time before the maniac generals decide to install learning software on the robots to make them more lifelike, then the machines will turn on there creators because they will have the worst karma. I also heard that the defense department thought about using these things against Ed and Elaine Brown at there Plainfield New Hampshire home where they refuse to pay the irs income tax (unless someone can show them a law which says they must) If you think the International Bankers & Kingmakers would have any hesitation about using these things against you and your family, think again.
Oh bollocks. There are hundreds of solider's own witness accounts of "shoot first, ask questions later" from the Iraq war. Convoys routinely smash or shoot all other traffic off the road. This is a stupidly horrific war, and millions of Iraqis now hate Americans -- not just the US, but Americans -- for it. Would the world have looked different if GW and Cheney had read all those old Robert Heinlein juvies about how this sort of thing plays out: clodhopping brutes enforcing the will of an overmighty nation appear to win at first and then get beaten back in the end by an increasingly restive native population. There was Between Planets, Citizen of the Galaxy and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, among others.
"50 years ago, torture really was torture. I see it as a good sign that nowadays the world is upset about humiliating photos."
With attitudes like that, you've already lost, and why? Because a) the Iraqis really were tortured, and b)humiliation, in an Islamic country where naked people are a taboo, is a guaranteed way to make the insurgency grow.
And you know what, sunshine?
It did grow. It wasn't even supposed to be a war, except that people like you , living in your dream world where Americans are somehow, better people than Iraqis, thought that the Iraqis would be ecstatic to get bombed and shot up for the second time in 12 years, and where they would live in some fucking crazy American capitalist dream where they would all love football and basketball, drive american cars, read playboy, sing the Star Spangeled fucking banner and do all the dirty fighting for the Americans when it came to invading Iran.
But modchips are illegal! Even Microsoft agrees!
which is totally what she said