Whatever one thinks of the justifiability of drone attacks, it’s one of the least “brave” or courageous modes of warfare ever invented. It’s one thing to call it just, but to pretend it’s “brave” is Orwellian in the extreme. Indeed, the whole point of it is to allow large numbers of human beings to be killed without the slightest physical risk to those doing the killing. Killing while sheltering yourself from all risk is the definitional opposite of bravery.

Glenn Greenwald on the Pentagon considering awarding combat medals to drone operators

Also, on the military referring to people killed by drones as “bug splats”:

Human rights lawyer Jennifer Robinson recently recounted numerous cases of horrifying civilian deaths involving Pakistani teenagers whose lives were ended by drones, and she observed that “this PlayStation warfare is only risk-free for operators of these remote-controlled killers.” She added that the use of the term “bug splat” for drone victims “is deliberately employed as a psychological tactic to dehumanise targets so operatives overcome their inhibition to kill; and so the public remains apathetic and unmoved to act,” and that “the phrase has far more sinister origins and historical use: In dehumanising their Pakistani targets, the US resorts to Nazi semantics. Their targets are not just computer game-like targets, but pesky or harmful bugs that must be killed.”

(via fearandwar)

Corporations are people, drone operators are war heroes…. We’re losing it. I see where all this is going.

(via mohandasgandhi)

The same kind of language was used during the cold war, to distance scientists and soldiers from the realities of nuclear warfare. Dr. Strangelove is a pretty accurate portrayal of the warped thinking that’s necessary to make nuclear—or indeed drone—warfare possible. There’s a lot of fantasy to it.

(via mohandasgandhi)

Source: fearandwar

Witness To War: Tim Hetherington's final photos

Trigger warning: violence, weapons, images of death.

Nine days after Tim Hetherington was killed, I received an email from him. It was sent on April 20, the day he died, but for whatever reason, spent a week in digital purgatory. I read it at 2 a.m. on a Friday morning, still feeling numb and confused by his death. “Hey man, just checking in,” he wrote. “Crazy day today. Full on city fight. It’s an incredible story . . . and hardly anyone here.” In some strange way I felt that Tim was still reaching out to me, reminding me of the importance of his final story.

These photos, shot on Tim’s Mamiya 7 camera, before he died, evoke a tangible sense of gravity. Striking on their own, they hold immense power because we know they are his last. Tim was always compelled by war. He was driven by a profound need to be present, a desire to document the life and chaos of places like Liberia, Afghanistan, and Libya. Tim chronicled a dark side of humanity, and the pictures he left behind are extraordinary landscapes of vulnerability and trauma.

More than anything though, Tim’s photos speak to what it means to be a man and how war often defines masculinity. “Photography is great at representing the hardware of the war machine,” he told his good friend and writer Stephen Mayes, a month before he died. “But the truth is that the war machine is the software, as much as the hardware. The software runs it, and the software is young men. I’m not so young anymore. But I get it. That’s really what my work is about.”

— James Wellford

redlightpolitics: Yesterday, the Swedish think tank SIPRI (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute) released its Yearbook. Dedicated to research into conflict, armaments, arms control and disarmament, the Institute compiles annual data of Military Expenditure, arms trade, nuclear forces and all related topics.The table above illustrates the world top 10 military spenders for the past year. The US alone amounts to 43% of global Military Expenditures, followed in a distant second place by China, with 7.3%.To provide context of what these figures amount to, I am including the SIPRI definition of military expenditure:Where possible, SIPRI military expenditure include all current and capital expenditure on: the armed forces, including peace keeping forces defense ministries and other government agencies engaged in defense projects paramilitary forces when judged to be trained, equipped and available for military operations military space activities Such expenditures should include: personnel all expenditures on current personnel, military and civil retirement pensions of military personnel social services for personnel and their families operations and maintenance procurement military research and development military construction military aid (in the military expenditures of the donor country) Excluded military related expenditures: civil defence current expenditure for previous military activities veterans benefits demobilization conversion of arms production facilities destruction of weapons
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redlightpolitics:

Yesterday, the Swedish think tank SIPRI (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute) released its Yearbook. Dedicated to research into conflict, armaments, arms control and disarmament, the Institute compiles annual data of Military Expenditure, arms trade, nuclear forces and all related topics.

The table above illustrates the world top 10 military spenders for the past year. The US alone amounts to 43% of global Military Expenditures, followed in a distant second place by China, with 7.3%.

To provide context of what these figures amount to, I am including the SIPRI definition of military expenditure:

Where possible, SIPRI military expenditure include all current and capital expenditure on:

  • the armed forces, including peace keeping forces
  • defense ministries and other government agencies engaged in defense projects
  • paramilitary forces when judged to be trained, equipped and available for military operations
  • military space activities

Such expenditures should include:

  • personnel
  • all expenditures on current personnel, military and civil
  • retirement pensions of military personnel
  • social services for personnel and their families
  • operations and maintenance
  • procurement
  • military research and development
  • military construction
  • military aid (in the military expenditures of the donor country)

Excluded military related expenditures:

  • civil defence
  • current expenditure for previous military activities
  • veterans benefits
  • demobilization
  • conversion of arms production facilities
  • destruction of weapons
In fact, Blackwater paid Colombians $34 a day to operate in Iraq. And when the Colombians protested their payment, saying that they were getting less than the Bulgarians or the others that were working for Blackwater, the white soldiers, Blackwater threatened them, according to the Colombians, and wouldn’t give them their passports back and said, you know, “We’re just going to release you onto the streets of Baghdad.” And eventually the Colombians left, and they went and they assassinated the recruiter that had hired them for Blackwater. So it’s ironic that Prince is using the Colombians. Now their pay has been increased to something like $150 a day.
Jeremy Scahill: Blackwater Founder Creating Private Army of ‘Christian Crusaders’ (via tiffanihillin)

(via freeusapress)

theatlantic: How Perpetual War Became U.S. Ideology The United States has found itself in a seemingly endless series of wars over the past two decades. Despite frequent opposition by the party not controlling the presidency and often that of the American public, the foreign policy elite operates on a consensus that routinely leads to the use of military power to solve international crises. … The passionate zeal of the liberal interventionists and neoconservatives satisfies an emotional hunger that has been a part of our political system since the emotion-laden days of the Cold War, when the public first came to view U.S. foreign policy as a tool of good to be deployed against evil. Both ideologies use the language of morality and appeal to our shared humanity. People want to do something about tragedy and it’s easy to persuade them that doing the right thing will be worthwhile. Realists may often be right, but they are rarely convincing Read more at The Atlantic [Kevin Lamarque/Reuters] Reblogging before I’ve even read the article. Because come on.
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theatlantic:

How Perpetual War Became U.S. Ideology

The United States has found itself in a seemingly endless series of wars over the past two decades. Despite frequent opposition by the party not controlling the presidency and often that of the American public, the foreign policy elite operates on a consensus that routinely leads to the use of military power to solve international crises.

…

The passionate zeal of the liberal interventionists and neoconservatives satisfies an emotional hunger that has been a part of our political system since the emotion-laden days of the Cold War, when the public first came to view U.S. foreign policy as a tool of good to be deployed against evil. Both ideologies use the language of morality and appeal to our shared humanity. People want to do something about tragedy and it’s easy to persuade them that doing the right thing will be worthwhile. Realists may often be right, but they are rarely convincing

Read more at The Atlantic

[Kevin Lamarque/Reuters]

Reblogging before I’ve even read the article. Because come on.

thepoliticalnotebook: Declining troop morale and increasing psychological stress levels among US forces in Afghanistan. A 2010 study of soldiers and Marines in Afghanistan, obtained by USA Today and viewable here shows that the mental health strain on deployed troops is at a five year high, particularly among those on their third or more deployments.   46.5% of servicemembers surveyed reported medium to very high morale,  a sharp decrease from the 65.7% in 2005.  Combat is more intense.  75-80% of the troops deployed to Afghanistan report being involved in firefights. Half or more report having killed an enemy. 75-80% reported a wounded or dead friend. Half had experienced an IED explosion within 55 yards of them on foot patrol. One-third experience chronic pain. Also on the rise are acute stress levels, difficulty sleeping, reports of psychological problems, and concussion. Read more at USA Today and the Army Times.  Above: A soldier on the lookout in the Taliban stronghold of Andar, Afghanistan on April 21. Photo Credit: Staff Sgt. Andrew Guffey. Via the US Army Flickr stream. As an aside, PTSD diagnoses abound in the civilian aid community as well.
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thepoliticalnotebook:

Declining troop morale and increasing psychological stress levels among US forces in Afghanistan. A 2010 study of soldiers and Marines in Afghanistan, obtained by USA Today and viewable here shows that the mental health strain on deployed troops is at a five year high, particularly among those on their third or more deployments.  

  • 46.5% of servicemembers surveyed reported medium to very high morale,  a sharp decrease from the 65.7% in 2005. 
  • Combat is more intense.  75-80% of the troops deployed to Afghanistan report being involved in firefights.
  • Half or more report having killed an enemy.
  • 75-80% reported a wounded or dead friend.
  • Half had experienced an IED explosion within 55 yards of them on foot patrol.
  • One-third experience chronic pain.
  • Also on the rise are acute stress levels, difficulty sleeping, reports of psychological problems, and concussion.

Read more at USA Today and the Army Times. 

Above: A soldier on the lookout in the Taliban stronghold of Andar, Afghanistan on April 21. Photo Credit: Staff Sgt. Andrew Guffey. Via the US Army Flickr stream.

As an aside, PTSD diagnoses abound in the civilian aid community as well.

Center for Investigative Reporting: Cost of global war on terror reaches $1.2 trillion

centerforinvestigativereporting:

“As of March 2011, Congress had approved a total of more than $1.2 trillion dollars for costs associated with the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and other post-9/11 ‘war on terror’ operations, the Congressional Research Service said in its most recent update on the subject.” - via Secrecy News

…