dagblog - Comments for "Drones -- Making War Safer!"

You have shown well the two

moat — Thu, 30 Apr 2015 01:35:26 +0000

In reply to The idea that a person could

You have shown well the two sides of the coin.

The idea that a person could

A Guy Called LULU — Wed, 29 Apr 2015 14:39:57 +0000

The idea that a person could be “radicalized” seems both easily understood as a concept and obvious as a likely outcome when, for instance, that person’d family is turned to “pink mist” by a rocket fired from a war machine whose droning presence they had heard from above for years and who knew exactly who had built it and put it into the sky over their families heads and had pulled the trigger that killed their loved ones of all ages and then they had been forced to listen through the lonely rage filled nights of their grief to more damned droning in the otherwise deathly quiet of an empty house.

I would be willing to bet and give long odds that some family members of victims of 9-11 who had always led peaceful lives not strongly affected by a strong wish for revenge against anybody or any group for any reason, and who had always before lived with a comfortable belief in live and let live, were enraged to the point of wishing death to those they believed responsible. Some of those would have done it with their bare hands if given the chance. If attempting to characterize the change in their mentality I might say thy had been ‘radicalized’. I would be surprised if anyone went to any big effort to argue otherwise.

"Radicalized: to become

HSG — Wed, 29 Apr 2015 14:05:37 +0000

In reply to But they're not radicalized,

"Radicalized: to become radical or more radical, especially in politics." My point is that the folks radicalized because of "our violence" didn't necessarily have bad intentions before they were droned or start having them after the fact.

But they're not radicalized,

PeraclesPlease — Wed, 29 Apr 2015 05:32:22 +0000

In reply to Malala says the killing by

But they're not radicalized, are they? Do they have bad intentions? Don't seem to - so what exactly is your point?

And you understand that words can have several meanings, that "radicalized" isn't talking about a radical who thinks drugs should be legalized - it's talking about people grabbing bombs or guns or chemicals for water supplies or airborne biological weapons or various kinds of sabotage - people encouraging the like-minded to go kill people and destroy property. Yes, it's possible to do this in a goal-oriented path to freedom, to achieve a purpose - I asked you to give an example where this has actually happened, and you can't even agree what "radicalize" means. Useless debates.

Yes Michael. We agree.

HSG — Wed, 29 Apr 2015 00:52:41 +0000

In reply to Yeah, was going to let this

Yes Michael. We agree. Thanks for a good piece. I regret that my somewhat nit-picky response obscured my overall admiration for your work.

Everybody thinks their

Michael Maiello — Tue, 28 Apr 2015 19:54:28 +0000

In reply to Are the "intentions" of those

Everybody thinks their intentions are unblemished.

Sigh. Being radicalized

HSG — Tue, 28 Apr 2015 18:18:00 +0000

In reply to Sigh. If they had "bad

Sigh. Being radicalized doesn't mean having bad intentions. Gandhi, MLK, and Mandela were all radicals. Frederick Douglass described being radicalized after a master beat him. The four men mentioned above all had good intentions. Dick Cheney is no radical but I doubt anybody has worse intentions.

Malala says the killing by

HSG — Tue, 28 Apr 2015 18:14:41 +0000

In reply to Please give an example of

Malala says the killing by the Taliban in Pakistan should stop and we should stop droning. We can certainly call her a radical can't we. Does she have bad intent? Sixteen-Year-Old Malala Yousafzai Warns Obama: ‘Drone Attacks Are Fueling Terrorism’ Radical: "a person who advocates thorough or complete political or social reform; a member of a political party or part of a party pursuing such aims."

Sigh. If they had "bad

PeraclesPlease — Tue, 28 Apr 2015 17:13:49 +0000

In reply to Yes our violence "radicalized

Sigh. If they had "bad intentions" before the violence, how can they be "radicalized"? They're already radical. Bad intentions squared?

Please give an example of

PeraclesPlease — Tue, 28 Apr 2015 17:08:07 +0000

In reply to Are the "intentions" of those

Please give an example of these radicalized attempts to stop bloodshed - as far as I know they're rarer than buffalo-head nickels or simply non-existent. Khomenei took advantage of the Persian revolution to shatter perceived opponents' windpipes so he could walk them off rooftops without hearing them scream. The Taliban spent its free time blowing up 1000 year old heritage pieces and abusing local women. Iraqis spent a lot more of their energy on Shiite-Sunni retribution than in fighting Americans. The Syrian rebels we helped arm seem to have committed as many atrocities as the Syrian government, and the Benghazi rights protests we supported turned into another murderous civil war. Al Qaeda of course did more to suck us into the region than push us out, e.g. more "radicalizing" moments, while ISIS is the antithesis of "stopping bloodshed". In the US & the west, all I see are ugly Danish & Charlie Hebdo murders, London Tube bombings, bombings in Turkey & Spain, Boston marathon explosions, and stupid shoe-bombing/gas-releasing attacks on innocent people. Maybe you get a different newspaper than I do - please share.