Drones and Other Military Stuff

I watched The Rise of the Drones last night.

First off, I don't know what one calls using drones to kill people. "Combat" doesn't fit, for the drone driver has no skin in the fight. The biggest risk that they face is being in a car crash going to and from work. Look, I don't ascribe to the notion that there is something honorable and chivalrous about armed combat. The idea is to win and if winning means you shoot the guy in the back or blow him up from a distance, that's winning.

But there is something disquieting about whacking a guy on the far side of the world.*

Second, does anyone really think that drone technology isn't going to be used, not only by the bad guys, but by the really bad guys? Stalkers, for one? Or take a small fixed-wing drone, put a few pounds of explosives into it and fly it into the car of the guy you want to kill?

Third, forget outdoor privacy, now. Not when they can put a drone 3+ miles up that takes video at 6" resolution over an entire city and they can store the video forever.

A laughable moment was to see the drone drivers wearing flightsuits. There's no reason why they couldn't all be wearing dresses and heels. And maybe they should, for it's no more a physically-demanding job than being a telemarketer.

This made me smile:

A woman who is married to a female Army officer has been named Fort Bragg, N.C., spouse of the year even though an officers' spouse club refused her membership.

A big F.U. to the bigots in the Ft. Bragg , even if they did just change their minds.

There has been a lot of stuff about the Pentagon removing barriers to women serving in combat. They have been, all along in the Wars of the Chimperor, because the soldiers needed women with them in order to be able to search female suspects. So women have been there, carrying rifles shooting and getting shot.

Fact is that a lot of women won't be physically qualified to serve as infantry soldiers, but those that can do the job ought to be permitted to. Historically, the inclusion of women in ground combat forces was only done because there were not enough male cannon fodder, but times have changed.

And maybe it is time to amend the Selective Service Act so that everyone has to register.
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* Anyone who said that insurgents were cowards for using command-detonated IEDs should be knocked to the ground and stomped on. For obvious reasons.