Attack of the Drones?

Airstrikes Won't Build a Better Future in Afghanistan:

"The media is enamored of high-tech, sexy-sounding airstrikes over Pakistan. They shouldn't be."
Indeed, behind the glittering mirage of news about the technological wizardry of drones and the giddy success of manufacturers from California to Karachi lies a chilling void of information about their use. In June the UN Human Rights Council condemned the U.S. failure to count and disclose, much less prevent, civilian casualties from drones in Afghanistan. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, pledged to regulate their use (implying a disturbing lack of regulation till then). But the government still refuses to share even the most basic information about attacks, partly because in Pakistan they are run by the CIA. Independent reporters who dare to investigate -- like Stephen Farrell, who went to Kunduz after an airstrike killed about a hundred civilians -- court death as well as condemnation for taking "unnecessary" risks for something as trivial as the truth.

Better future? We get out!

Read more...

We'll Follow Obama's Orders on Afghanistan

Gates to Army: We'll Follow Obama's Orders on Afghanistan:

    

Washington - Amid tension between the military and President Barack Obama over military action in Afghanistan, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates told a gathering of Army officers Monday that the Pentagon would follow any strategy that Obama orders.

    "Speaking for the Department of Defense, once the commander in chief makes his decisions, we will salute and execute those decisions faithfully and to the best of our ability," Gates told the Association of the U.S. Army in Washington.

read more

There is something that nags me. There is this impending doom feeling. Maybe it stemmed from the pulled article about a military coup (I forget where it was being run). It just feels like the political chasm is growing larger and larger each day. And now the military is getting involved.

Read more...