Slashdot Mirror
Iran Claims To Have Downed Another US Drone
AmiMoJo writes "The Iranian military says it has captured an unmanned U.S. drone aircraft in its airspace over Gulf waters. The Revolutionary Guards said they had brought down a ScanEagle — one of the smaller, less sophisticated drones employed by the Americans. The U.S. said it was looking into the reports." (The U.S. response so far, also reported by Reuters and others, seems to be "We're not missing any drones.")
CIA: [sounding official] Uh, everything's under control. Situation normal.
Pentagon: What happened?
CIA: [getting nervous] Uh, we had a slight weapons malfunction, but uh... everything's perfectly all right now. We're fine. We're all fine here now, thank you. How are you?
Pentagon: We're sending a squad up.
CIA: Uh, uh... negative, negative. We had a reactor leak here now. Give us a few minutes to lock it down. Large leak, very dangerous.
Pentagon: Who is this? What's your operating number?
CIA: Uh...
From the summary: "The U.S. response so far, also reported by Reuters and others, seems to be 'We're not missing any drones.'"
How could any one entity tell? At this point there's the CIA, the FBI, the ATF, the NSA, the SS, the regular Army, the Army Rangers, the Navy, the Marines, the Seals, the Air Force, the Coast Guard, the State Department, the DoD, Mercenaries (ie "Civilian Contractors"), and Sheriff Joe Arpaio all with drones. Could any one entity speak for all of those at this point?
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
Those aren't the drones we are looking for. Move along.
Why does anyone care?
Sorry, I shouldn't be like that. So...let me get the facts straight here. A country that is well known for saber rattling without anything to back it up may or may not have shot down an incredibly slow flying, cheap, pilotless, unstealthed drone that is specifically purpose-built to get shot down so we don't have to risk more expensive planes and pilots. That's it, right?
Just out of curiosity, how are the Kardashians doing today? I mean as long as we're acting like unimpressive bullshit is news, might as well go all the way.
Let me know when they shoot down an F-22 Raptor or a B-2 Spirit. Until then, non-news. I mean hell, this is exactly why we use drones in the first place - so we don't have to risk either pilots or much more expensive planes to do this stuff. Let them shoot down 1,000 more for all I care. Just more american workers in american aircraft factories with more work to do. Nobody dies, and it benefits our domestic economy. By all means Iran, PLEASE, shoot down some more easy targets so we can mass-produce some more replacements for them.
Actually, "Argo" gave the Guards more credit than they deserved. The movie threw in a lot of fictional Hollywood bullshit to make it look like the diplomats escaped with seconds to spare, with the Guards hot on their tails. In real life, the Guards were completely oblivious - they had no idea it happened until they saw it on TV.
Oh, please. The US may lie in the press, but it's nothing compared to what North Korea does. Our media doesn't say shit like on the day Obama was born, there was a double rainbow over the White House and a cold shiver went down Chuck Norris' spine. There's no comparison.
Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
Wabbit season.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
Drone season, fire!
...
You're despicable.
Never start vast projects with half-vast ideas.
Glen Beck isn't media, he is entertainment. Same as Limbaugh.
Good luck convincing their audiences of that.
Audiences which include some highly influential people...
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
No... there's a lighthouse in the middle of Prussia. A white house in a, Red Square.
I'm living in films for the sake of Russia, a kino runner for the DDR, and the 52 daughters of the Revolution turn gold to chrome.
But seriously, lyrics to old goth songs notwithstanding... I know a lot of my fellow Americans are naive about a lot of things, but comparing our media, bad as it is, to China or Russia's, much less to North Korea's, of all places, is at best naive in the extreme, and a good sign someone has been drinking kool-aid they shouldn't be.
"Inveniemus Viam Aut Faciemus" 'We will find a way... Or we will make one!' --Hannibal of Carthage
Yes, the previous copy they bought is in use. They are busy wiping Israel off the map.
Oh, please. The US may lie in the press, but it's nothing compared to what North Korea does. Our media doesn't say shit like ...
Decades ago, when I was a kid, the US press printed similar outrageous statements about China. Then I grew up, I learned how to read and write Chinese, and I lived in China for several years. Out of curiosity, I went back and read some of those reports in the original Chinese. What they actually said was NOT what the US press reported, but instead was the use of metaphor or some idiom like "raining cats and dogs" that was never supposed to be taken literally. The US press was twisting the meaning of the words to intentionally make the Chinese look stupid.
I do not speak or understand Korean, but I strongly suspect that that same thing is happening. So your example of the Koreans lying is probably really an example of the USA lying about what the Koreans are really saying.
Just to politely point out that the United States is not the only ScanEagle operator in the region. Several coalition nations including Canada, Poland, Australia and the Netherlands operate ScanEagle platforms and could very well be using them in theater to support operations in Afghanistan. Also, this particular type of drone is not as big of a deal; considering it was originally designed to help fishermen find schools of fish, this isn't exactly the pinnacle of drone technology.
Now, the longer perspective is that this is peanuts compared to the bombine and human suffering in past (undeclared) wars. Probably it would not even be possible anymore to imagine a war in the proportions of Vietnam these days. Targeted drone killings sound more humane than Dresden and Hiroshima. Those who carry the crimes out say it was an order. And when someone bombs their base he becomes a "terrorist". That is the whole hypocrisy. So maybe the standards and principles are wrong, not the practise.
A Soviet general in the '70s told Farley Mowat (paraphrased), "The difference between our propaganda and yours is that we don't believe ours."
"Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
It is well known that the audiences of the Daily Show and Colbert Report entertainment shows on the Comedy channel do very well on polls of public knowledge. What is less appreciated is that those two shows have some unexpected competition.
Pew Research Center - Key News Audiences Now Blend Online and Traditional Sources
Data from table: Education, Age, and Knowledge (Near bottom of page.)
High
Knowledge / Source
44% - NPR
43% - Hardball
42% - Hannity & Colmes
36% - Rush Limbaugh
34% - BBC
34% - Colbert Report
33% - NewsHour
30% - Daily Show
22% - Daily newspaper
21% - NBC News
19% - CNN
19% - ABC news
19% - Fox News
18% - National Average
17% - Local TV news
10% - CBS News
I have to admit to a bit of surprise that the Colbert Report audience outscored the Daily Show audience, but there it is.
(Queue down mods by the "open minded" for this bit of sacrilege.)
much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell