tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355086750486200439.post347216315284859787..comments2024-03-24T19:55:32.537-05:00Comments on The View from This Seat: Droning On LKSeathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08860725174433173015noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355086750486200439.post-63809325808676905862012-11-28T11:44:54.520-06:002012-11-28T11:44:54.520-06:00Clif, you sound quite pessimistic. Unfortunately, ...Clif, you sound quite pessimistic. Unfortunately, I think you may be right.LKSeathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08860725174433173015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355086750486200439.post-48698122502634411572012-11-26T16:41:04.895-06:002012-11-26T16:41:04.895-06:00I have just corrected my misspelling of Medea Benj...I have just corrected my misspelling of Medea Benjamin's first name. I apologize for not getting it correct in the original posting.<br /><br />If you would like to see the PowerPoint slides she used in the webinar mentioned above, here is the link (which you will have to copy and paste):<br />http://www.slideshare.net/JohnLindsayPoland/drones-webinar-medea-benjamin-20nov2012#btnPreviousLKSeathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08860725174433173015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355086750486200439.post-90006575280909580222012-11-25T20:11:02.025-06:002012-11-25T20:11:02.025-06:00Drone technology will inevitably become cheap and ...Drone technology will inevitably become cheap and widely available. Already today there are iPhone controlled model helicopters available for use by mischievous nerds who want to take aerial photographs of their neighbor's back yards (or whatever else they dream up). I predict there will be a terrorist act of violence utilizing drone technology against the USA in the not too distant future. Frankly, I'm surprised it hasn't happened already.Clif Hostetlerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09192652526880912362noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355086750486200439.post-50596225117008641052012-11-25T13:35:05.129-06:002012-11-25T13:35:05.129-06:00While oversight was mentioned as a negative, it is...While oversight was mentioned as a negative, it is no accident that drones are instruments of the CIA. Many CIA activities are not publicized due to concerns about national security, but I question that all of their actions would be approved by citizens if they were known. <br /><br />The USA has a history of meddling in other countries' affairs. More of these should be acknowledged or not done. One positive of the use of drones is at least the strikes are reported.Dennis Boatrightnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355086750486200439.post-35593318867199363652012-11-25T09:45:53.985-06:002012-11-25T09:45:53.985-06:00Another brief, but significant, comment from my es...Another brief, but significant, comment from my esteemed Thinking Friend in Kentucky:<br /><br />"I share your concern and opposition to the use of drones, Leroy. We may save American lives, but that is just keeping ourselves 'out of harm's way' as we wreak havoc on others."LKSeathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08860725174433173015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355086750486200439.post-30954995363049716722012-11-25T08:31:54.682-06:002012-11-25T08:31:54.682-06:00You've raised some extremely important issues ...You've raised some extremely important issues here with regard to the use of drones, and I thank you. Thanks for the links as well. I suppose there are a lot of us who are neither pacifist nor militant and martial American exceptionalists who find ourselves uncomfortably in some land-mined middle ground regarding military actions. We don't want war unless it becomes absolutely necessary, and we don't approve of drones unless they're use is better than boots-on-the-ground activity. Your column challenges us to work through more carefully and thoroughly the kinds of policy that are needed to continue to promote a more peaceful world. (Even my phrase "more peaceful world" could betray my own bias against U.S. domination and triumphalism. And I hope I'm not beating around the bush here just because I don't oppose all military action.) Responding quickly, off the top of my head, I would think a non-pacifist Christian, humanist, and "realistic" platform would require such planks as (1) maintaining no more military than is absolutely necessary; (2) a reaffirmation of standard just-war principles (as well as the Geneva protocols and all that sort of thing); (3) dissent from the glorification and romanticization of military service; (4) a call for respect for the integrity and being of other nations in their own right (i.e., not viewing every nation instrumentally in terms of of one's own national interests); (5) constant diligence in the pursuit of peaceful means of resolving conflict; and (6) the quest for turning swords into plowshares by retrofitting the military to serve also, if not primarily, in places and times of natural catastrophes. It would seem to me that the use of drones, which is almost certainly going to expand, should/would be evaluated through such a framework as I've outlined here--at least for those of us who don't oppose all military action. I don't have the answer to the issue, and I don't mean for my post to be in opposition to your position. In fact, I mean to be in sympathy with it, albeit, I realize, from a more Niebuhrian standpoint. Thanks, Leroy. Antonkjacobshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01734526091623931154noreply@blogger.com