Slashdot Mirror
Meet the Men Who Deploy Airstrikes
Lanxon writes "Wired followed US Army Staff Sergeant Kevin Rosner into Afghanistan to see first-hand the tools, tactics, and pressures involved in coordinating military airstrikes. This lengthy piece explores the people and technology involved in high-risk airborne warfare, from their perspective. From the article: 'Strapped to his chest, Rosner carries a handheld video player called a "Rover," built by L3 Communications, a New York-based defense contractor. The device, the size and shape of a PSP game console and costing tens of thousands of dollars, reads signals transmitted by the camera pods strapped to the underside of all NATO fighter aircraft. With his Rover, Rosner can see everything a pilot sees, from the pilot's perspective. On his back he carries a radio programmed with secure frequencies that tie him directly to the pilots overhead and to his unit's headquarters, several miles away. At the headquarters, another JTAC monitors a bigger, more sophisticated video terminal that displays the same video Rosner sees, plus other data.'"
So this is how they slaughter innocent people for western greed.
No need to meet them, let them keep being anonymous and cobards
Most of the spanish inquisition was made from the most educated, god-fearing, well-behaved and intelligent "priest-soldiers" of that age.
they were mass murderers nonetheless.
Rosner saw innocent farmers working their fields along the valley floor; he doesn't want to add them to the rolls of the dead.
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Are any civilians in harm's way?
...
"Everything is so critical," Chandler says. Any mistake "can cost you a life."
Gee, this couldn't be Pentagon PR after the recent revelations of US slaughtering innocents, could it? No, I'm sure it's simply Wired keeping us up-to-date on interesting technology.
Perhaps Wired will also do a story on the technology the people in Afghanistan use to bury their dead.
"High risk airborne warfare" ???? Are you afraid that an afghan made A4-paper-plane may shot down a N-billion dollar (tax-payer-paid) fighter?? Wake-up first-world guys!! And jokes about civil casualties are easy if you're 10 steps away of your full fridge and 10 minutes away from a super-if-you-have-the-money-market.
La culpa no es del chancho...
He's too busy crying over all those insults about his greedy, violent but so weak country.
Why does every offensive action not have a JAG assigned to levy penalties upon criminal personnel? Where is the UN to prosecute them for war crimes? Seriously, WTF? The prisons of The Hague should be full of American soldiers who made even so much as a tiny mistake. Why is this not happening? When Bu$hitler was in charge, maybe we could understand this deliberate genocide, but now that Obama is in office, is he also an accessory to genocide? What is happening to us good people?????
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
How good do you have to be to shoot down rusty Soviet cast-offs and bomb weddings? The US air-force is probably the safest job in military history.
Considering the hardware I find it peculiar that they kill so many civilians. I guess the people meant to limit the amount of false positives are basically hillbillies. I guess good hardware has no effect as long as you do not train your forces to fight fair. No amount of "freedom" or technology can explain away the fact that the largest army on the planet are still basically just killing for fun / at random. I hope those stupid oil-/gass-wars end soon. I wonder if they would have if we invested all the money we currently invest in those wars in alternative energy. Considering that they evidentially have the needed technology to avoid civilian casualties; I guess not. :/
If you do this stuff, and you are doing it to people who are not directly invading your country, then you are a war criminal.
The coolness of your technology does not excuse your actions.
Since you are not doing it to me, and...
the people who at whom you are directing this cool death tech are not important, and...
they did offer shelter and assistance to those came to your country and murdered thousands of your people,
I'm not condemning you.
I'm not your judge.
But you are war criminals by any civilized standards. So accept it.
This is the kind of info that should be classified and not be made public in so much detail.
Next we will be seeing car bombs outside the offices of L3 and any other organizations mentioned.
Why make the terrorists jobs easier?