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What Happens In Vegas Happens In Afghanistan

Posted by timothy on from the far-from-the-madding-crowd dept.

theodp writes "After the morning commute from his Las Vegas apartment, Air Force captain Sam Nelson sits in a padded chair inside a low, tan building in Nevada, controlling a heavily armed drone aircraft soaring over Afghanistan, prepared to kill another human being 7,500 miles away if necessary. Welcome to the surreal world of drone pilots, who have a front-row seat on war from half a world away. 'On the drive out here, you get yourself ready to enter the compartment of your life that is flying combat,' explained retired Col. Chris Chambliss. 'And on the drive home, you get ready for that part of your life that's going to be the soccer game.' No wonder why the Air Force is interested in the Xbox LIVE crowd and the Army's opened a new arcade recruitment center!"

5 of 522 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Additional risk to us: by evilviper · · Score: 4, Informative

    At the risk of quoting John Wayne, war isn't about giving your life for your country - it's about making the other bastard give his life for his.

    John Wayne... George Patton... Same thing, really...

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  2. Re:Additional risk to us: by couchslug · · Score: 5, Informative

    "Why did the American Civil war soldiers line up and fire at each other? Because to hide behind trees, bushes, and hills would be unethical."

    Everyone who modded this up deserves a (virtual) throat punch for gross and spectacular historical ignorance.

    Slowly for the short-bus crowd:

    Civil War weapons were not accurate or long-range by modern standards, so the way to obtain high volumes of fire was by massed formations of troops. That didn't have anything to do with ethics, but everything to do with making the best use of (usually muzzle-loading) muskets and rifles.

    Massed fire required lots of troops, performing different stages of the process to ensure something like steady fire:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doqgPsmT7tc&feature=related

    Contemplate doing this while under musket and cannon fire you can't usually move to dodge:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_z5kr2EmRIo&feature=related

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  3. Re:Additional risk to us: by Pfil2 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Why? At the risk of quoting John Wayne, war isn't about giving your life for your country - it's about making the other bastard give his life for his.

    That was not John Wayne, it was George C. Scott in the movie Patton. The whole quote is "No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country."

    Movie Quote

  4. Re:Additional risk to us: by timeOday · · Score: 5, Informative

    That was not John Wayne, it was George C. Scott in the movie Patton.

    Not just that, it's an actual quote of Patton.

  5. Re:Fly-by-wireless-link for the win! by timeOday · · Score: 4, Informative

    Look at what partisans did in ww2. Did they fight out in town centres?... No, The US goes to great length to prevent civilian casualties - They may not be perfect but I really don't like this idea that they are somehow as bad as the Taliban in their regard for human life.

    In WWII the US did intentionally slaughter a couple hundred thousand civilians in Dresden and Japan (nukes). Without even entering the issue of whether that was justified, it's just not true to say we always avoided targeting civilians.