Remote control war – a look at the daily grind of Predator pilots

What's it like to kill human beings by dropping bombs with the push of buttons on your computer keyboard 7,000 miles away? Imaging doing this every work day, then driving home to hug your wife and kids every night. This video from FrontLine will give you a good idea of what it's like. Whatever your emotional reaction to this form of "warfare," you will find someone agreeing with you (and disagreeing with you) in the comments following the video. If our enemies were using robotic planes to drop bombs on American soil, I suspect that we'd be outraged, much more than by conventional warfare. This is certainly a sterile way of war, no matter how much the supervisors remind the pilots that they are killing human beings. If I understood why we are at "war" in Afghanistan and Iraq, maybe then I could understand whether these drones are furthering our "war objectives."

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Many detailed reasons to fear John McCain

The Rolling Stone has just published a highly detailed, article written by Tim Dickenson. This article is must-reading for anyone who really wants to understand John McCain by his words and actions over his disturbing life.  The more you know, the less you'll trust this fake maverick.  In fact, the…

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A pilot complains about the airport “security theater.”

I've sometimes wondered what insiders think about pre-flight security. Here is a recent account by one pilot: Before we take off, I would like to apologize on behalf of this and every airline for the hassle you just endured at the security checkpoint. As is patently obvious to any reasonable…

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