FREEDOM FORUM: Discussion

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AP

As pilotless US drones do battle from the sky in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq, a top US Army general is urging the military to step up the deployment of unmanned vehicles on the ground.

"It's all about saving lives," said Lieutenant General Rick Lynch, the commander of the III Armored Corps and the holder of a master's degree in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

 

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Comment by TL Winslow
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It would be great if one day the U.S. military would consist of millions of robot soldiers commanded by human officers. Imagine, if any country wants to mess with us, we could just jump a bunch of them programmed as kill-everything-that-moves Terminators into their territory, and let them shoot until they run out of ammo, after which they will detonate on detecting any nearby human life. That would cause any country to think twice. Too bad, there might be a command-control problem, and the enemy might be able to commandeer them, but that shouldn't stop the DOD from trying. If I was young again I'd want to become a military robot engineer, think of Archimedes and his cool engineering toys to defend Syracuse, never mind that he couldn't save it from the Romans :)


Comment by RShackleford
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Could be a very dangerous downside to this.

 

It is great if we can save lives but put yourself in the enemy’s shoes....could it be that they may need to resort to non-conventional means to fight a mechanized enemy that does not bleed (no mothers will weep at home over a broken crankshaft)? Will they maybe for instance not fight the Robots but bypass, not only the robots or the nerds working the joysticks (military personnel) but maybe....go directly after the civilian population to break the enemies' resolve to fight....this has happened in the past (9-11) or like when you are up against a military that for whatever reason that you can't get them to cry uncle...you go after the civilian population...this happens in just about every war.

 WWII was no exception, there where more civilian casualties than military ( U.S. got off easy)...it is a proven military tactic

 

Yes, you go after the civilian population.

 Examples: the bombing of London...later German cities where bombed....and then there was Tokyo... Nagasaki and Hiroshima. (if we would have lost the war, Gen. LeMay would have been tried and convicted for War Crimes)

 

All is fair in love and war.... and no convention in Geneva is going to make war civilized. In the end there are no rules if you want to win!!!

 

 

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