1/3 of people killed in Drone Attacks are Civilians

[alt]

We're bombing the ideas at the source! The mind directly!

Nothing says mental warfare like a guided missile to the head!

In all seriousness.
When civilian casualties in an attack are greater then the number of targets you wish to eliminate, its too much.
Thus, 50% is too much.

What if you could have killed Hitler before the breakout of war by bombing his house. But you would have to accept 20 civilian deaths. Would that be worth it?

You have to take the value of the target into consideration and the potential for success too.

[Rhinox]

What % would you say is realistic for bombings in general? Just curious.

as a pacifist 1 life is too much. Idealistic? sure. Realistic? No but then again I wouldn't go invading other nations.

In a general sense, there is no set number. It depends on the war and the stakes of losing it.

During WWII, the acceptable amount of civilian deaths was very high. That is why you saw the carpet/fire bombing of German and Japanese cities. The Allies simply could not afford to lose because their way of life would be destroyed if that happened. So the acceptable loss of civilian life was very high.

Within the military there are people who sit down and actually compute the acceptable number of both military and civilian deaths for any given large scale mission.

well Thats nice and I appreciate the history lesson but I asked you personally at what point does it start bothering you?

[dejet]

Ifn there was a guy in my house that was going to try and killn someone because we are the west. And it happened to be that bombing was the only way to kill him, fucking bomb my house...

I don't see what is wrong? If yoyu hide with people and don't point out who they are, you will be in the line of fire deal with it. Shit happens.

[Correction]

Sweet, we got a pinpoint on a terrorist leader in Pakistan, let's bomb the fuck out of him.

Aw shit he just picked up a kitten, wave it off.

[Falcon]

What if you could have killed Hitler before the breakout of war by bombing his house. But you would have to accept 20 civilian deaths. Would that be worth it?

You have to take the value of the target into consideration and the potential for success too.

Well, yes. But that's a different scenario then just strategic bombing random militants. It was more of a rule of thumb; of course it has exceptions.

[Rhinox]

Ifn there was a guy in my house that was going to try and killn someone because we are the west. And it happened to be that bombing was the only way to kill him, fucking bomb my house...

I don't see what is wrong? If yoyu hide with people and don't point out who they are, you will be in the line of fire deal with it. Shit happens.

lets see if I can make a completely unrealistic scenario with zero chance to happen just to prove a point.


If I can give my life so that death itself is cured and every young girl can have a pony that shits $100 bills I would.

[Falcon]

as a pacifist

...Oh. That explains it.

[Rhinox]

Sweet, we got a pinpoint on a terrorist leader in Pakistan, let's bomb the fuck out of him.

Aw shit he just picked up a kitten, wave it off.

How many times have we killed a terrorist leader? Quite a few no? Why do think they keep popping up? Eventually they gotta run out of leaders right?

[alt]

well Thats nice and I appreciate the history lesson but I asked you personally at what point does it start bothering you?

To give you an idea of my stance in general, i'm a complete realist in terms or politics and foreign policies matters.

I honestly wish I could give you a specific number for that question but I can't. It would depend on each situation. Before I could make a judgment I would have to ask myself questions like:

What is the target we are going for? How important is it? How much chance of success is there that we will actually be able to eliminate the target? Have we done everything we can to limit collateral damage? How many civilians could be killed potentially at max? What type of civilians are they, children? etc.

[Correction]

How many times have we killed a terrorist leader? Quite a few no? Why do think they keep popping up? Eventually they gotta run out of leaders right?

Your counterproposal of 'let's stop all bombings' needs a stronger followup though. Can't simply pull all combat personnel out of both countries and hope for the best.

[Rhinox]

Your counterproposal of 'let's stop all bombings' needs a stronger followup though. Can't simply pull all combat personnel out of both countries and hope for the best.

Why? at what point do we say "you know, fuck it this isn't worth it". We been in that region longer then the stubbern goddamn russians in the 80's.

[oldoldman]

I'm having a hard time figuring out who's trolling who here.

[AidenCarby]

a pony that shits $100 bills I would.

Where do I get one?

[Priran]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing...n_World_War_II

tl;dr: QQ, nothing new, if they're so smart why do they live in igloos

[Rhyis.]

Not all civilians overseas are civilians. Just sayin'



That's not to say that I agree with predator strikes to begin with.

[Ishido]

1/3 of people killed in Drone Attacks are hanging out with the wrong people.

[Sylvrdragon]

If you don't want your family blown the fuck up by pissed off Americans, then either don't be a terrorist or don't be near your family. THEY certainly don't give a shit about American civilian casualties when they blow up our planes and buildings. In fact, much of the time, civilians ARE the target. We avoid collateral damage when we can, and that's more than they can say. Fuck em.

[Lordender]

oh god, this thread should be locked cause it's gonna turn into nothing but a flame war. Innocent people die all the time in war, it has been that way for 1000's of years. Innocent death that occurs in a war aren't cool but i'm gonna be realistic and say it's unavoidable more times than people want to believe.

One time my best friends pop talked a little about his vietnam experience while blasted drunk one night. He said he was a gunman on a helicopter and when they flew over villages that "could have hostiles in it" they would just open fire on it from above killing whatever moved. War is shitty, unfair to those who don't want anything to do with it. I am not surprised civilians get caught up in the crossfire's and get killed.

Drones are as only as good as the people controlling them.

[greenhills]

using some of the logic put forth here, the 9/11 attack was totally justified. after all, it's war, and those civilians were just in the way of a good target.

[Takedown3]

as long as its more then 40% we got this