Posted: Jan 19, 2017 3:32 pm
Here's the original post. I'll stick with it.
laklak wrote:Father O Rielly wrote:
You don't know who those hard noses are who have taken up residence in the crowded allyways of town, but you do know that you don't like them, and further, those that have asked too many questions have come to grief. You are more concerned about scratching out a living for your six kids and wife in a brutal economy. You come home one day and find your shack is a burning ruin, kids dead. Collateral damage, the US is saying. How complicit are you?
I seriously doubt that they have no idea who the hard asses are. Like I doubt the locals had no idea who was living in that decrepit mansion in Abbottabad. Or for that matter that the Pakistani authorities didn't know. From what I've seen, these hard asses don't exactly hide their presence, they're out there digging pits to stone women to death in, burning schools, flogging and hanging people. If a bunch of white supremacist militiamen took up residence in my neighborhood I'd certainly know about it. That said, I'm sure there are people who don't know, or don't support them and are too terrified of reprisals to speak out. I'm sorry for that, but it doesn't change my decision to use the drones rather than attempt a capture. Sometimes life sucks.
It isn't as easy as it looks to fly a SEAL team into hostile territory, evading small arms or even more sophisticated air defenses, land in an urban area controlled by hostile armed forces, fight through a rabbit warren of streets, find the person they're looking for, extract him without harm, get back to the copters (which have to be defended by more troops during this whole process), and then get out safely. I think it's one HELL of a lot harder than it looks and that's why it isn't done more often, but I'd have to defer to Weaver on that one.
Drones certainly aren't foolproof, but they're a hell of a lot more accurate than carpet bombing.