Slashdot Mirror
US Deploys 'Heat-Ray' In Afghanistan
Koreantoast writes "The United States military has deployed Raytheon's newly developed Active Denial System (ADS), a millimeter-wave, 'non-lethal' heat-ray, to Afghanistan. The weapon generates a 'burning sensation' that is supposedly harmless, with the military claiming that the chance of injury is at less than 0.1%; numerous volunteers including reporters over the last several years have experienced its effects during various trials and demonstrations. While US military spokesperson Lt. Col. John Dorrian states that the weapon has not yet been operationally used, the tense situation in theater will ensure its usage soon enough. Proponents of ADS believe the system may help limit civilian deaths in counterinsurgency operations and provide new, safer ways to disperse crowds and control riots, but opponents fear that the system's long-term effects are not fully known and that the device may even be used for torture. Regardless, if ADS is successful in the field, we'll probably see this mobile microwave at your next local protest or riot."
The 870 local people in the crowd are dispersed by the cops and unhurt. Of the 130 bused-in 'anarchists' who remain to 'fight the pig' maybe 10-20% are hurt. Unfortunately, not hurt enough that they won't bus off to the next 'demo' the next week to break more windows and create gratuitous mayhem.
Good grief - safety pins can be used for torture - maybe they should be banned!
What bigger picture? That the military is invading lands that it can use as bases to expand its military reach, test weapons (as evident in this news article) and harvest money?
Do you honestly think the US soldiers are making the US a better place by killing others in their native land and endangering themselves? (which initiates a vicious cycle of survival: The invading soldier doesn't want to die, and the invaded insurgents don't want to die, and then endangered civilians choose one of the sides to try and survive)
Do you honestly believe that the world is too gullible to see that the 'accidents' of your military are a direct result of your military not giving a shit about the civilians in the first case?
They aren't accidents anyways, we're not stupid. You call the whole military pyramid knowing about tortures in, for example, Abu Gharib, and not doing anything about it an accident? You think the terrorist US soldiers perpetrating these torture acts are doing it unknowingly? "Here, let me let force this prisoner to take his clothes off while I strap live wires to his body and let the dog terrorize him" Doesn't like an accident to me. And why aren't those war criminals put behind bars for their actions?
Or maybe "How about we torture the fuck of those Arabs in Gitmo although we really don't know why they're here; we'll probably release them after a few years" looks like an accident to you?
It is completely absurd to believe that those are accidents were not a direct result of your military treating the civilians in those countries as dirt, because every military system that isn't a pyramid of terror would value the lives of civilians and would certainly punish the soldiers who do otherwise. Your military failed to do both, as the war criminals of the American war machine are roaming America freely under the protection of your law.
Your soldiers, when in convoys, have so much disregard for human life that they easily ram away civilian cars that drive near them. It happened even where I live, in fact, my uncle saw it with his own eyes.
Are you going to say the actions of Black Water were accidents, too? Is letting them go free an accident too?
And what is this talk about invalidating a system? Invalidating a system of invasion? The system itself is corrupted, bottom-up and top-down. When the system consists of commanders agreeing to the acts of torture, promoting and defending them, and also protecting the perpetrators of the torture; you know the system is corrupted, and so is your mind, unfortunately.
And no, military systems that DON'T INVADE other countries certainly do not have this type of accidents.
Why are you saying that torture is accidental? It isn't, it can't be and it never will. Why are you saying that those incidents are tragic but are excusable because they're accidents? They happened because your military didn't give two shits about lives of civilians in those countries. Are you saying all of that because you're American? In this case you're an American alright, but you're not a human being, not in any decent sense.
What kind of soldier thinks he is a hero while torturing people or gunning down at targets he knows nothing about? If he felt proud doing that, he's just another hitler, even if that soldier happened to be your friend or cousin.
The soldiers pulling triggers and perpetrator torture are capable of refraining to do that; yet they didn't refrain. How noble of them.
You also have a wrong understanding of the term bad guys. When you invade a country, you are the bad guy. When the people of this country get mad at your invading force and raise arms against you, and you fight them, you are still the bad guy.
There is so much to say in this regard, but I'm afraid it will be useless because you clouded by the illusion of patriotism. Look at how your government treats you and spies on you, are you one of the sheeple that believe it is for your own safety? The soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan