I got as far as them re-litigating Joe Lieberman

  • balderdash@lemmy.zip
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    1 year ago

    First thing that comes to mind is he used a fuck ton of drones overseas. But in the years before his presidency, more and more drones were being used.

    Second, Obama was pro-whistle blowers when he ran for POTUS. But when Edward Snowden told the world that the NSA is spying on Americans, suddenly Obama took his pro-whistle blowing stance off of his website.

    • Rapidcreek@reddthat.com
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      1 year ago

      As to drones, would you rather use live soldiers to carry out missions given the possibility of their death? As a followup, do you believe that drone warfare would have existed in any case?

      As for Snowden, what makes him any different from Aldrich Ames, Robert Hanssen or many more? Just because you claim the high ground doesn’t mean you own it.

      • CarmineCatboy [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        1 year ago

        As to drones, would you rather use live soldiers to carry out missions given the possibility of their death?

        Don’t know what to tell you but people being invaded don’t tend to hold american soldiers’ lives as sacred.

      • BeamBrain [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        1 year ago

        As to drones, would you rather use live soldiers to carry out missions given the possibility of their death?

        Very few people give a shit about dead foreign civilians, a lot of people get angry when the bodies of their own country’s soldiers start piling up. Replace the soldiers with remote control machines and you remove a huge (arguably the main) incentive for people to oppose war.

      • Awoo [she/her]@hexbear.net
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        1 year ago

        As to drones, would you rather use live soldiers to carry out missions given the possibility of their death?

        1. Why are you automatically supporting these “missions” in the first place? They shouldn’t be carried out at all.

        2. Yes I would rather have live soldiers doing it. Dead bodies means less people will support doing these “missions” that shouldn’t be done in first fucking place.

        The US is literally the Empire from Star Wars and this thread is basically you doing “empire did nothing wrong” but unironically.

        You are the bad guy.

      • balderdash@lemmy.zip
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        1 year ago

        The choices are not either drones or American boots on the ground. That’s a false dichotomy. And we ended up leaving anyway. I can only imagine how it must feel to lose a family member as a civilian casualty of a drone strike and then the occupying country just leaves.

        I don’t see how these other example are relevant. Edward Snowden was not a double agent working for a foreign entity. He saw that a government agency was breaking the law and then told the American people. He also worked with a reputable news agency to not release unnecessary classified information. By all means, this should have been lauded by the Obama administration.

        Just because you claim the high ground doesn’t mean you own it.

        When you say shit like this its hard for people to take you seriously.

        • Rapidcreek@reddthat.com
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          1 year ago

          The way we fight terrorists is to decapitate the head of their organization. Pretty soon No one wants to be boss anymore. They are the targets. Now you have a choice on how to eliminate those targets, either by combat or by a newish idea drones. But, both are not clean. More than bin Laden died in the house that night. You may argue they shouldn’t be killed in the first place, but I believe it was necessary.

          You don’t know if Snowden wasn’t an agent by the evidence. He stole intelligence and caused it it be published then went running to Russia. I don’t think a Russian intelligence agency could ask for anything more.

          • came_apart_at_Kmart [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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            1 year ago

            The way we fight terrorists is to decapitate the head of their organization. Pretty soon No one wants to be boss anymore.

            how long is “pretty soon”? 50+ years?

            also, the US doesn’t so much “fight terrorists” as it trains, arms and finances them to destabilize regions near US geopolitical rivals, and then get real shocked when all that blows back on US civilians. though it does seem to work up little baby brains into shoveling more money, bones, and blood into the military industrial complex. so maybe it’s a win-win?

            • edge [he/him]@hexbear.net
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              1 year ago

              it trains, arms and finances them to destabilize regions near US geopolitical rivals

              Hmm, that sounds familiar ukkkraine

              and then get real shocked when all that blows back on US civilians.

              I’m sure that definitely won’t happen though.

      • Sasuke [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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        1 year ago

        As to drones, would you rather use live soldiers to carry out missions given the possibility of their death?

        yes, personally i’d love to see more dead US soldiers actually

        gigachad-hd

      • CyborgMarx [any, any]@hexbear.net
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        1 year ago

        Buddy you have a lot of unexamined assumptions you need to address, first let’s start with the context of these “missions” your beloved soldiers and drones carry out

        Is murdering innocent people for oil execs and military capital something you consider necessary and noble?

      • radiofreeval [any]@hexbear.net
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        1 year ago

        would you rather use live soldiers to carry out missions given the possibility of their death

        If you’re going to be a murderer, don’t be a coward about it. A person with a rifle knows what they did, a drone has plausible denyiblity. Plus it’s harder to convince people to send people to do the killing as opposed to robots.