In Moscow earlier this week, the president said that “the future does not belong to those who gather armies on a field of battle or bury missiles in the ground.” This was taken by some among us as evidence of a breathtaking naïveté.
But I am not sure that all of his listeners understood what he was really saying:
The US conducted a second Predator airstrike in Pakistan’s Taliban-controlled tribal agency of South Waziristan today.
Unmanned Predator strike aircraft pounded a Taliban convoy, killing 25 fighters and destroying five vehicles.
“We have reports that 25 militants have been killed,” an intelligence official told Reuters.
The US was “gunning for a HVT [high value target],” or a senior al Qaeda or Taliban leader, a US intelligence official told The Long War Journal. “We believe there were some foreign al Qaeda fighters in that convoy.”
The attack on the convoy was the second today, and the third in 24 hours. Earlier today, eight Taliban fighters were killed when Predators fired six Hellfire missiles on a Taliban training camp in Karwan Manza. The camp is run by Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud.
Yesterday’s strike on a Taliban training camp in the village of Zangra in the Ladha region killed 12 Taliban and four al Qaeda fighters.
As the Pakistani army prepares its assault on the tribal regions of Southern Waziristan, Taliban and al Qaeda leadership elements are attempting to filter out via ratlines leading north. Forced into the daylight, our enemies gather their “armies” on the field the better to reculer pour mieux sauter. Once out in the open, we bury missiles in them.
Which will ensure that they, at least, have no future.
I can live with that.
Update: Not everybody can, however.
A senior British judge, Lord Bingham, says that the use of UAVs as weapons is “cruel as to be beyond the pale of human tolerance”, Robert Verkaik, legal editor of Britain’s daily The Independent reported earlier this week.
Lord Bingham, who was until last year the senior law lord, said in an interview with the British Institute of International and Comparative Law, that drones could be compared with cluster bombs and landmines.
Emmm. No.
Sorry Lex but I don’t believe Obama is capable of that kind of depth. He meant exactly what he said and it is naive.
WOOT to the predator strike!
Lord Haw Haw is an idiot. UAVs packing Hellfires are neither indiscrimnate nor prone to inaccuracy, unlike the judges intellect.
A senior British judge
Ah, well, that explains it. He’s batty.
Oh, and also:
“Those who beat their swords into plowshares end up plowing for those who don’t.”
I think the president’s advisers would use this spin-
“Since UAV’s require neither large armies on the field of battle nor large ICBM’s in underground silos, his statement was clearly not contradictory.”
So you just need to shorten it up to-
“The future belongs to the guys with more UAV’s that give plausible deniability”
Obviously time to buy stock in Lockheed Martin as this is Obama’s weapon of choice for foreign military intervention. Maybe add a flechette round with the tiny darts made out of bacon.
Virgil – sorry Dude, BarcoLounger Drivers RULE!! The USAF new name will be the RCDC (remote controlled drone club). And I’m sure the august readers can come up with something better. I’ve had 2 bombay/tonics, and its time for the gin tanker.
G-man sez:”Maybe add a flechette round with the tiny darts made out of bacon.” SpewAlert! There goes that Icehouse all over the monitor.
Better idea: use steel, but coated in bacon grease. We could even get sponsors to help offset costs: Hormel, or maybe Smithfield, Virginia. Hormel Brand Army Ham Projectiles(tm).
“I love the smell of bacon in the morning. It has the smell of … dead tangoes…”
You know what’s really annoying? I can use {sup} (superscript) and {/sup} html tags and it shows up just fine in the preview, but isn’t allowed for publication. Grrr. The guys who wrote the Perl for this should have just not shown it in the preview. The teases.
It’s more like box-dwellers. UAV crews don’t get anything as comfy as a Barca-Lounger. More like an Iron Maiden – the better to stay awake at 0300.
But there’s something much more important. This impudent British twit is accusing a bunch of us of being Yankee Air Pirates.
Which is quite an affront to Confederate Sky Privateers.
If Lord Bingham doesn’t like UAV’s with missiles, I’d love to see his reaction to an FAE. (That’s Fuel/Air Explosive for you non ordnance types.) Blast wave like a nuke followed by a hard vacuum for a second or two. They leave such a mess that one wants to use them.
Except the Russians. They really, really want to use them.
And if you want to see what a FAE can do, look at the train wreck that killed 20+ and obliterated a town in Italy last week.
No thanks, I’ve seen the aftermath of a couple of CBU-55 strikes and believe me, you don’t want to see anything like it. Basically turns anything with lungs inside out, from humans right down to mice and shrews.
We had those FAEs in Vietnam as early as 68 (or at least early prototypes) Used to kick ‘em out of the ass-end of C-130s w. para. to either attack large bunker complexes or for use as the ultimate daisy-cutter for LZs. Would totally denude a triple canopy hill-top–an awesome sight indeed. Never saw the results up close and personal tho. Of course for LZ prep, or bunker complexes on isolated hill-tops. etc., the “mess” is not a problem…
Actually I think a better analogy for the predator would be a submarine, they both lurk out there somewhere, attack without warning and then disapper!
What patches will the Navy Drone pilots wear besides the classic “Yankee Air Pirate”? “Las Vegas Hilton Yacht Club?”
No, those are for the Air Force guys.
Mike M./
Hey Now!!
So, we should go back to Napalm? In a book about the bombing of Germany in WW2 that I read as a kid in high school, there was a line in the front by the author. A bomb kills just as a .30 calibre bullet or words to that effect. Hmmmmmmmm. It seems Lord Bingham has not grasped the concept that war is an ugly business.