My Saturday begins and all is right with the world…..damn! I cannot say that without laughing……most of us are trying to decompress from the rigors of the election…..
Yesterday we celebrated our veterans….something we should do everyday…..but we do not have time for that…..once a year suits our bust schedules just fine…..how sad is that?
Since my younger days I have been an antiwar person….I witnessed the obscenity of war first hand as a soldier in Vietnam….when I came home I worked hard to end that war and to bring the troops home where they belong….
And since those days I have not faltered from the path of antiwar…..I believe there is always another option to the horrors of battle.
Now we are fighting terrorists everywhere around this globe…..since those days began about 7500 American troops have been killed and many many more have been wounded……
Most recently the war with drones has been used to propagandize war by saying that drones are used so that American troops will not have to be used and possibly killed……
In case you have been under a rock for the last 15 years and not aware of the drone program this short vid can help……
Drones do save lives built they also are indiscriminate killers of civilians also……
But in our rush to make war easier and safer for our troops we are making it possible that it will be here for a very long time to come……
The newest thing to “protect” our troops is the “Iron Man” exoskeleton for the front line troops……
In developments which have seen reality mimicking science-fiction, new technologies have enabled military scientists and research teams to develop robotic armoured suits for warfighters or military exoskeletons, like those seen in Hollywood films such as Ironman, Avatar and The Matrix.
Military exoskeleton suits, designed to fit around a dismounted soldier to give them almost-superhuman capabilities, can be fitted onto the body of a soldier in order to improve physical characteristics, such as strength or endurance, creating huge advantages for inboth combat and carrying out logistical tasks.
Although previous programmes, such as the Handiman project co-developed by General Electric and the US Military, suffered from serious limitations due to weight and mobility issues, companies including Raytheon and Lockheed Martin are now taking advantage of new materials and technologies to make science-fiction become science-fact.
Source: Military exoskeletons uncovered: Ironman suits a concrete possibility – Army Technology
But if that is difficult to get your head around then maybe this vid will make it easier……
Don’t get me wrong…I am all for keeping the troops safe from harm….but I believe that these programs are not doing that in any way….all they are doing is making extended war so much more easy to call on…..
On a side note…..the military is practicing a dangerous thing when it is experimenting with the brains of soldiers…..
Air crew, drone operators, and other personnel serving in the military’s most demanding roles may soon get a non-pharmacological boost: brain stimulation. Devices that use five electrodes to shoot weak currents into very specific targets in the cortex have performed very well in studies investigating performance under pressure, boosting cognitive ability in a way that could be safer than prescription drugs, reports the Guardian. Both modafinil and ritalin are said to be used off-label to enhance performance in the military.
In the latest study, scientists asked participants to keep a crosshair inside a moving circle on a screen while juggling three other tasks on the same screen for 36 minutes. One group had a constant two milliamp current beamed into their brains, while the control group only had 30 seconds of stimulation at the start. The constantly stimulated group began performing better just four minutes in—a “profound effect” that provides “new evidence” of a “human operator” having enhanced multitasking abilities via brain stimulation, the researchers write in the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. Not everyone is thrilled. “Even for those jobs where attention is absolutely critical, you want to be very careful about making it compulsory,” one ethicist tells the Guardian
This is a dangerous precedent……stop experimenting on our troops!
Do not misunderstand me…I want our troops to be as safe as possible……but they would be a lot safer without having to fight endless wars…..
I think a dozen people have said it at least in the past, and I keep saying it myself when people gush about the newest military technology (paraphrased): War should be terrible, lest we grow too fond of it. We make war so easy to have that there’s no reason to stop having it. Madison said that a people can’t keep their liberties in a nation perpetually at war…and he was right. We throw everything at the boogeyman out to get us, and we won’t have anything of ourselves left to show for it. I believe this is the result of fighting “wars” that have no end. The War on Terror won’t end with a surrender signing on a battleship or in a rail car, or in an occupied palace somewhere…wars without end will kill us, and part of me wonders if that’s not what OBL had in mind all along.
As a past antiwar activist I totally agree…..you want to protect the troops then do not use them unless totally necessary….have good day….chuq
Pings much appreciated….chuq
Your last line hit the issue on the head… The problem is the desire in humans to make war; the rest is just our over-active imagination at play. Nobody is ever safe, unless they make themselves safe. For that to work for us all, we all would need to put aside differences that cause conflict, and that simply isn’t going to happen, given our lack of understanding of our own nature….
gigoid, the dubious
So sad that that is true….for me war is obscene and is a worthless waste…..have a good day…chuq
I have more than a few friends from our generation who have had a problem getting all the way home after ‘Nam… some are still struggling with it… which I try not to get pissed about all over again whenever I see it… Doesn’t always work, so, I know what you mean…
I think anyone that lives thru war would feel the same….chuq
I imagine so; my dad, who spent almost 4 years in the Pacific in WWII would never talk much about that time. Nor would Mom, as she lost two babies during the war years. The whole war thing is like an embedded disease in our contentious nature; it acts like multiple sclerosis does on the brain, draining our capabilities in a devastating, undignified and perverted fashion, just like a virulent disease…
Wish I knew the cure….
gigoid
There is NO cure as long as someone can make a fortune off of it….after all it is the American Way….chuq
The best war is one we never have to fight at all.
AMEN!
The best way to make war safer is to have everybody capable of waging war return to the days of the uniforms, weaponry and tactics of Ancient Greece …
The city states of Greece were pretty war like if I remember right
Yes but their wars were fought more or less in the nude and with lovers at their sides. Way more fun than what we have today — for a lot of people — I mean we are getting there what with the inclusion of LGBT people in the armed forces …. not quite there yet … but getting there …. and if it keeps up the results will be the same ….
LGBT? Really? That is the least of my worries as we keep sending the same poor people time and time again…the law of averages says their number will come up….
War is only one of the many human interests that include the element of prurience as one of its attractions.
All efforts are made to make it safer…not find a better way of dealing with international problems…
Most warriors have a subliminal thing inside of them that sees war as one way of getting their jollies regardless of all denial or arguments to the contrary.
I must agree…..while I think it is sick….but accurate
🙂