From: John K Clark (jonkc@att.net)
Date: Sun Dec 29 2002 - 21:54:41 MST
"Harvey Newstrom" <mail@HarveyNewstrom.com>
>The US bombed canadian troops in Afghanistan without verifying their
>identity.
Preventing friendly fire casualties is an important issue but has little to
do with what we were talking about, it is not a moral problem it is a
technological problem.
>> Me:
>> The bozo was riding in a jeep in Yemen with 5 known members of
>> al-Qaeda when he was blown up by a Hellfire missile fired from a
>> unmanned Predator drone.
> Or he might have been a reporter working on a story. Or he might have
> been an undercover agent infiltrating the group. Or he might have been
> a negotiator trying to make a deal. Or he might have been an unwitting
> neighbor who wasn't told about the terrorists' double life. Or he
> might have been a hitchhiker. Or he might have been a kidnapped
> American was being held by the terrorists.
Sure, anything is possible, but that's not where I'd place my bet at the
time. I think I would have won too, he wasn't a reporter he wasn't
hitchhiking, he wasn't a undercover agent, he wasn't negotiating; Ok maybe
he was doing something else that was innocent and maybe the world is flat
too but I doubt it and I've got more important things to worry about. I'm
curious Harvey, the next time a Predator drone finds 5 top level members of
al-Qaeda riding in a jeep in the desert of Yemen what do you suggest we do,
have a jury trial to decide to fire the Hellfire or not? Should we do the
same thing every time a soldier wants to pull the trigger on his rifle? War
is a dirty business and innocent people are going to get killed even by the
"good guys", but there are people out there who want you and I dead and
that's a dirty business too, one I'd really like to prevent
John K Clark jonkc@att.net
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Wed Jan 15 2003 - 17:58:56 MST