195.7 - Obama's lovely little war: US to allow export of armed drones

Obama's lovely little war: US to allow export of armed drones

A quick look at another part of Obama's lovely little war in Iraq and Syria.

By the way, some might wonder why I keep calling it his "lovely little war." It's because this is a war - we're told it's war, we're told we're at war with terrorism or Daesh or whoever the immediate target is, we're told of the importance, the necessity, the vital nature of this war, how it's a stand for justice and freedom and milk and cookies at bedtime and apple pie and motherhood, a struggle against fanatics who would murder us in our beds if they could - but it's a war conducted, designed, to produce as few US casualties as possible, preferably none, to have all the dying, all the bleeding, all the suffering, done by others, all the risk borne by others, while we pat ourselves on the back with accolades of our greatness. In other words, a lovely little war.

Anyway, as part of our lovely little war, last month a GOPper on the House Armed Services Committee urged the Amazing Mr. O to approve selling unarmed surveillance drones to Jordan. This came in the wake of Jordan attacking Daesh targets after one of its pilots was supposed to have been burned to death by terrorists while trapped in a cage.

Well, our Nobel Peace Prize President was not going to be out militarized by some punk Congressman. So the White House recently announced that it will permit the export not just of surveillance drones but of armed drones.

The State Department said it would assess such exports on a “case-by-case basis,” including “armed systems.”

The State Department said that it would only be allowing armed drone exports to allies. But some of our allies have some of the worst human rights records in the world (think Saudi Arabia) - and they now could conceivably purchase what are, put simply, remote control killing machines from the US.

So they can have their own lovely little wars - including, perhaps, against their own internal opposition.

Sources cited in links:
http://thehill.com/policy/defense/232045-republican-pushes-drones-for-jordan
http://thehill.com/policy/defense/233003-us-okays-sale-of-armed-drones