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Friday, October 25, 2013

Conscience and Remote-Controlled Killing.

Killing foreigners has always been part of the Human Condition. Our 'fear' of interlopers is well established and while in many instances may be irrational and prejudiced, it is all too often justified.

Today is St Crispin's Day. Let us consider War. And Honour.

Considering  'dark' matters has to be done, even in a Tavern.  It has been pointed out by those close to me that this account of the goings on in the Tavern often deals with unsavoury matters. The world is complex with much 'dark' to contrast with the light of Goodness and many people who cannot tell the difference.

There is Ying and Yang people. Good and Bad. You can walk a fine line between them but we are apt to fall one side of that line or the other.  Make sure you know what you fall into.


Chimpanzees will patrol their territory and kill any monkey that they find, often eating the poor sod too. They do not 'fear' monkeys: they hate them. It is in their genes. And we are very closely related to Chimps, so we are told. Something we have learned by close observation and biological sciences.

Indeed the main difference between humans and chimps is largely confined to the male chromosome, the 'Y' that feminists hate so much. We have learned that too. Fine haters, feminists: its the Chimp in them. Men seem more finely human, discriminating more carefully.



That's another hatred of feminists: they do not want anyone to discriminate.

To them, Good and Bad are just 'relative'. Discrimination though is always 'Bad'. Odd how good an bad matters 'relatively' too.

Armies do not like their troops to discriminate too much either, despite the overarching message of the Nuremburg Trials. "Obey" is far easier to teach than, "use your Conscience". It is especially easy with young men brought up in the awful, mind-denying education system so Dominated as it is with those caring, nurturing, conflict-resolving psychos we call teachers.

An education system that produced Brandon Bryant.

He may well have been a nice young man. He certainly retained some vestige of conscience despite the massive pressures of an anti-boy schooling and a thuggery Military. But it was not enough to have him say 'NO' to what seemed to be 'Lawful Orders'.

As a soldier his orders from above were to Kill people: the enemies of the State. Heck, as a Knight I can understand that. On a wall in the Tavern hangs a Commission from Her Majesty the Queen, addressing me as her 'Trusty and Well Beloved' and authorising me to go forth and kill her enemies. I did rather well.

Fortunately I was also mentored by strong men with a conscience still very much in fine working order. They taught me to pray over the slain; not to hate them. My enemies were close and shooting at me. Killing was a survival issue.

Brandon was in a far more 'technical' force, able to kill people thousands of miles away.

Retired US drone operator tells of the turmoil he feels after killing by remote control 

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/world/retired-us-drone-operator-tells-of-the-turmoil-he-feels-after-killing-by-remote-control/story-fni0xs61-1226746447041
 
"I WATCHED him die. It took a long time."  
These are the chilling words of a retired US drone operator, describing his actions in Afghanistan. 
The former US air force drone controller told GQ how he is haunted by the horror of killing people thousands of miles away as he sat in safety in a US command bunker.
Airman First Class Brandon Bryant, who spoke out in a bid to raise public awareness, describes a string of disturbing incidents - including being told to cover up his fears that a child had been killed, after photo checks showed the blurry body could have been a dog.
He tells of one incident in detail - beginning when he took over control of a MQ-1B Predator drone's weapons systems as it circled quietly miles above the Afghan countryside.
Bryant himself sat in a padded chair in a darkened booth in the Nevada desert, lit only by the big-screen monitors on which the following scenes unfolded. Alongside him sat the drone's pilot. 
 Matthew Power tells us:
Confessions of a Drone Warrior 
He was an experiment, really. One of the first recruits for a new kind of warfare in which men and machines merge. He flew multiple missions, but he never left his computer. He hunted top terrorists, saved lives, but always from afar. He stalked and killed countless people, but could not always tell you precisely what he was hitting.  
Meet the 21st-century American killing machine, who is still utterly, terrifyingly human.


Now, before we go on, let me make something clear. Personally.

I am not 'against' war, just as I am not 'against' any tragedy. I have great and careful sympathy with all human beings in this vale of tears we call Life.

The drive to the development of our technologies is also written into our genes.  I am not against Drones, nor their useful deployment. There have always been people, regimes, wickedness that we must resist, fight, destroy. That means we have to do many unsavoury things. With clever technologies.

But as Human Beings, with a Soul, with Conscience, we are Individually accountable.
While Bryant considers leakers like Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden heroes willing to sacrifice themselves for their principles, he’s cautious about discussing some of the details to which his top-secret clearance gave him access.  
Still, he is a curtain drawn back on the program that has killed thousands on our behalf.
For Bryant, talking about them has become a     
sort of confessional catharsis,  
a means of processing the things he saw and did during his six years in the Air Force as an experimental test subject in an utterly new form of warfare. 
But it is not enough. A 'sort of confessional' does not heal the Soul.

Only the Sacrament of a True Confession, to God, in-front of a Priest, can do that.

But Obama recently even tried to forbid priests to give the Sacraments to Soldiers like Brandon.

Evil tries every crack in a man's armour.
Read More http://www.gq.com/news-politics/big-issues/201311/drone-uav-pilot-assassination#ixzz2ihrbqIFX

Bryant was tracking three men walking down a dusty dirt track.
He instructed the drone's cameras to zoom in an effort to pick out the finer details of the suspects. He was told they were carrying rifles, but from that height he could not tell weapons apart from a simple shepherd's staff.
Then came a tinny, remote command in his headset: "Shoot."
IR mode: Check.
Laser designator: Check.
Countdown: Three ... two... one.. "Missile off the rail".
The $95,000 Hellfire missile leapt from underneath the Predator drone, powering up to supersonic speeds in seconds as it plunged towards its unsuspecting targets.

The operator watched. The men walked on, unaware.
The IR cameras lit up with flame.
Bright. Silent.
"The smoke clears, and there's pieces of the two guys around the crater," he told GQ.
"And there's this guy over here, and he's missing his right leg above his knee. He's holding it, and he's rolling around, and the blood is squirting out of his leg, and it's hitting the ground, and it's hot. His blood is hot. But when it hits the ground, it starts to cool off; the pool cools fast. It took him a long time to die. I just watched him. I watched him become the same colour as the ground he was lying on."
 
Now, Bryant is speaking out in an effort to raise awareness of the cold killings drone operators such as himself are expected to conduct.
He says he regards leakers Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden to be heroes for standing up for their principles. 
But Bryant himself will not discuss the details of his job which were classified "top secret".
Bryant's testimony has added fuels to the flames of controversy surrounding the United State's  drone wars.


The administration insists that operations intended to kill top terror leaders -  which can take drones deep inside the airspace of nations unaware of their presence - are legal under international law.
Amnesty International disputes this, earlier this week declaring such actions amount to "war crimes".
At this point one smells a rat so follow it up through the main links.

Amnesty is often taken as a 'sound' organisation of 'good' people, but was started by a British Communist Party Cell in London pre-WW2 and funded by Comintern. It propagandised for the Communists imprisoned during the Spanish Civil War but ignored the equally ill-treated Republican prisoners. It remains consistent in its mendacity, pretending to be fair-minded, but rarely does it criticise the Left.

Amnesty lives in a ménage a trois with Feminists and Cultural Marxists and is frequently seen around with other unsavoury leftists on the side extolling same-sex marriage, abortion and euthanasia. Frankly they have supported far more murders than a drone operator.

One has to pull a fresh pint whenever they have sent a glass sliding down the bar and into someone's lap.
Pakistan. Yemen. Afghanistan. All have experienced drone over-flights intended to find and kill those the US assert are a threat to its security.
The US has carried out nearly 400 drone attacks in Pakistan's restive tribal districts along the Afghan border since 2004, killing between 2500 and 3600 people, according to the London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism.
Even in his climate controlled bunker, Bryant felt the impact of the wars raging thousands of kilometres away.
In Iraq, he was tasked with following an insurgent commander through his electronic eye-in-the-sky.
The suspect pulled over and dragged two girls out of his car.
"They were bound and gagged," says Bryant. "He put them down on their knees, executed them in the middle of the street, and left them there. People just watched it and didn't do anything."
 
Nor did Bryant. The order did not come, this time.
Many of his tasks he regarded as vital, such as supporting troops in the field. Others, he agreed, were necessary.

"We were going after top dudes. They started showing us PowerPoint presentations on who these people (we were targeting) are," he said. "Why we're after him, and what he did. I liked that. I liked being able to know shit like that."
But there were also incidents which made him doubt the role of his winged robotic killers.
He related one such incident: 
"Missile off the rail.. (then) this figure runs around the corner, the outside, toward the front of the building. And it looked like a little kid to me. Like a little human person." 
The intelligence operative overseeing the mission reported the victim in his official statement as being a dog.
The operators themselves became little better than the machines they operate, he said, frequently slipping into an emotional "zombie mode". 
Bryant was not immune, sitting in safety thousands of killometres from the scenes of destruction he initiated.
He has been diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder. 
It is an affliction common to many ex-US military drone operators.
Now, the US Air Force cannot get enough volunteers to man them.
 
Dirty. Dull. These are the key words that fill the minds of those approached to take on the task.

For a pilot, nothing matches the thrill of air beneath one's own wings.  
For a weapons operator, the fear is burnout after round-the-clock shifts sitting behind flickering monitors - striving to make sense of what is going on half a world away.
And they know what they do is controversial.
Regardless, US officials reject any and all criticism of the drone program: To not attack "terrorists" this way would be tantamount to inviting more attacks on the mainland United States, they say.

The Issue is not the controversiality, but the lack of conscience.

Young men such as Brandon are sat in a machine which gives then vast amounts of information but much of which is redundant and irrelevant. It does not identify individuals.

He is ordered to kill people who are not shooting at him. Indeed not shooting at anyone.

Yet, as we see, when he does get 'true', incontrovertible information, actually seeing an execution of innocents, no 'Order' come to tell him to intervene.

A Man must follow his Conscience FIRST.

His Conscience MUST have precedence over 'orders'.

St Augustine made it clear 1400 years ago and there has been enough time passed for everyone to know it and to have grasped it.

A Man of Good Conscience MUST DISOBEY any human authority that instructs him to do 'Bad'.
 
 
That is assuming that the education he has been given in his youth has taught him anything.
 
But  Cultural Marxists and Feminist Chimps dominate education.
 
War has always taken young men to its filthy bosom. Young men are all-too-easily swayed. Cannon Fodder. Expendable.
 
Not just their bodies, blasted to bits on some foreign field, but now we can kill at a distance with their bodies safe, we are still happy to blast their Souls to Hell.

 
 
God for Harry and St Crispin. Help us all to do it Right.
 
 
Pax Dei Vobiscum.

24 comments:

  1. IIRC, the actual Henry V ordered the killing of French prisoners on the battlefield at Agincourt. This is also echoed in the play by Shakespeare.

    There was no Geneva Convention 500 years ago and it is not always sensible to retroactively impose today's moral standards on men who lived in a different century. You still might want to reflect upon the irony of posting a critique of today's brutality at the same time that you celebrate the actions of Henry V.

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  2. Oh? And where did I "retroactively impose today's moral standards on men who lived in a different century"? I think you might be reading something I did not write?

    And where do you get off asking me to reflect on irony? Did you not get the critique of war? Did you not understand the call for personal accountability? Did you miss the issue of conscience in your haste to point a crooked finger?

    Now, off to Confession with you. Then come back for a nice drink.

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  3. Let me know when the designation "airman" is changed to "operator", with the appropriate
    pay rank for xbox gamer. I'd kinda' like to see a specific "domestic" designation where applicable.
    Make no mistake, a job is a job. I'm a bit leery of "look over there and wait for orders from someone in an even MORE remote and comfortable chair" as a designation for soldier.

    CaptDMO

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    1. Quite a cutting through the knot point there Captain. I wonder what designation Goliath had. 'Asshead First Class' perhaps.

      This whole 'assymetric' warfare needs an entire lexicon to itself.

      Delete
  4. Knight Amfortas, Thank you for being you.

    I admire you so much and I wish for you to carry on sending your message. You do it so eloquently. I love the way you bring the feminists into the argument about drones. And the Y chromosome thing. Science, beyond doubt. There is so much chimp in women. All women. Damn them all for not knowing their place, which is in the home looking after me and the children. That's how it worked well for so long, and how it should continue.

    So thank you for pointing out all this feminist stuff because some fools just don't see it. We should all be on guard because evil feminists are taking over everywhere. It's mission creep and we need to be alert.

    Men are biologically superior. We do maths, we engineer, we invent. We run the world and we run faster. Always have, always will. Suck it up girls.

    Will.





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    1. Let's not get carried away, Will. There is a need to mention and show linkages to such ideologies as Feminism, just as it is often necessary to mention Communism, Cultural Marxism, National Socialism and even chimps. But do not think for a moment that these are confined to some strange species or sub-species or just to women. Men have a propensity to all these, even chimp behaviour.

      I would disagree that men are biologically superior to women. That is ridiculous and quite unsupported as an assertion. Humans are superior to chimps, for sure. Women as well as Men. Men as a sex may well be more creative and inventive than woman, but try making a baby. That is an ultimate creativity, even if ridiculously easy to start off.

      My message - Continually - is that there is an important aspect of Mankind - which includes Womankind - that is transcendent of species. We have a Spirit. Every culture recognises it except the Totalitarian ones and those with an Atheist disposition. Our Soul is as different to biological life as biological life is to stones.

      It is your soul that is the centre of this Blog. In this post's issue it is the souls of our young military men and their commanders that concerns me.

      But, have a drink. Quench anger and thirst. It is sustenance for your soul and exposed to the Grail's light.

      Delete
    2. Very concise article Amfortas

      I think we can sign off the current US Military as DOA in the credibility arena. About the same thing happened to the former USSR before they tanked. They have at this point become a kind of global disease conducting global power grabs, in the name of some garbage they they are calling “Democracy”.

      Honestly America was a good place until the Democratic Party basically consistently drove the country to support cultural marxism. And now they wish to spread this filth globally under the new form of communism they call “Democracy”.

      Anyway I'm going to link to an article that I think more or less sums up the current US government.

      Understanding Organizational Stupidity

      http://cluborlov.blogspot.com/2013/04/understanding-organizational-stupidity.html

      Delete
  5. And don't forget...men are better cooks! LOL!

    One of your best amfortas. ---the drummer.

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    1. Hahaha. Some indeed, Joy, and some women are a Joy in the kitchen. We have had several splendid ladies in our restaurant kitchen as you might see looking back a bit.

      They do 'soul food' well.

      Delete
  6. Yes, and those joyful ladies belong in the kitchen. Doing the washing up. Men are the best chefs.

    Military men are godly and loved by god. When have women ever approached a battle field? Put their lives on the line like we do?

    I tell you, women are a blight in the world. A scar on humanity and we would be better off without them. Feminists are more evil than Hitler and Pol Pott and Idi Amin and every dictator ever because they do not understand the natural order.

    The sooner we bring things back to what is right, the better. Women will thank us when they are no longer in a position to boss us men around, steal our money and pretend that they can do things as well as we can. They have the cheek to use us financially and then deny us our children. We are the fathers.

    When my woman had our second daughter I was not happy because I wanted a son. She said I was being unreasonable but who wants to be surrounded by all these females? Now I have my son and she is poisoning him against me. She has told him that I am an unfit father. he is only seven years old and very impressionable and he listens to her. Last time I saw him and told him that he was different to his sisters and was likely much cleverer and more scientific he said he didn't want to see me anymore.

    Please help me to show him some reason. I want my son very much and even my daughters a little. But I am obviously not that bothered about those girls. They are in their teens now and looking like little tarts already.

    Will

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    1. You sound like a very bitter and hurt man, Will. I have sympathy. Even empathy. Recall my provenance. I am the ever wounded Knight, cursed by my own failings to suffer an incurable wound, until a Pure Fool comes by and takes it away. You are half way there.

      You say, "Military men are godly and loved by god. When have women ever approached a battle field? Put their lives on the line like we do? " Two items there, three. The first, not all men are godly and some militaries are pure evil. The men in them too. Most of course are simply drones of course - not the airborne ones - who follow outrageous orders, murder, rape, and commit every atrocity known to man. So look to the Beam in your own eyes rather than ignoring it to just see the motes in other's.

      As for women in battle.... I do not wish such on my own son, but modern warfare does not distinguish men from women, children or roadside flowers. It is very likely from your opinion that you are American, a country that has never seen modern warfare visited upon its cities on the scale of other countries. Let us recognise warfare as a necessary tragedy which affects us all.

      God does not love war. He may smile on some Warriors, but not a great number. It comes back to Conscience. Good conscience. You seem to have some way to go yet.

      Then you say, "I tell you, women are a blight in the world. A scar on humanity and we would be better off without them."

      Poor man. You dismiss and want to rid yourself of half of humanity. That was not managed by Hitler, pol Pot, Stalin, Mao or even Henry. All together and with all the other wicked governments, warriors, leaders, politicians etc, they did not call for one half of the human Race to be gone. So whare does that leave you compared to Feminists.

      I have no liking for feminism, nor for evil, but YOU, sir, need to distinguish between the Singer and the Song: Love the Sinner and Hate the Sin. Your song and sin is something YOU should work on.

      Your wife, the mother of your children, was chosen by YOU to be wife and mother. What a disappointment it must be to see your poor choice. We have all made poor choices though. I am sure she had her fine points. Now she is hated. Keep the hate for the hurts she gave you. Love her with pity for what she has become. And take pity on yourself too.

      Now, Will, I have healing Grace here and you are free to drink. But shout out mindless hatreds and I just might ask the Bouncer to show you the finer detail of the courtyard cobblestones.

      Delete
  7. What you don't realize is that I like a few women around to see to my needs but they have to know their place and must not be uppity. They have to know that men are born to lead and women cannot preach to men. Not under any circumstances as is writ in the holy book.

    Like you say I made a very poor choice with my wife. She would never shut up and then she made girls. Two in a row, so of course I was pretty upset about that. Feminists are really evil because they want the same things for women as men and that is not possible. If they would just stay home and cook things, and sew, and be good in bed then it would be quite OK. I like my house tidy and my dinner on time after a hard days work. Is that too much to ask?

    It is good that you are a knight and that the queen is very pleased with you. It's really even better that lots of kings are lined up behind her so that things are back to the way they should be with a man in charge. I can't wait for King Charles and William and George. Not a Lizzie in sight and the world will be brighter for it. I am especially excited about Will!

    Will.

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    1. Hmmmm. Much is put down to the Holy Book. Those old Arab Shepherds had a way about them, customs, attitudes etc but I very much doubt you would like to live that way. You cherry -pick like a feminist.

      Yes, women can tend to your needs, but it is a two way street; or are you still on the road that feminists have built for you? Biased, sexist, selfish.

      Continue to look through the window, even ask for a pint, but sit outside in the sunshine until that attitude defrosts.

      Delete
  8. My Holy Book is The Koran. I don't drink in pubs and would not come in yours, you foolish infidel. Go walk with Allah.

    Wilahasi

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    1. I hope you find a cure. Feel better for venting spleen?

      Delete
  9. Amfortas, you speak of irony but can't see it when it is in your face. Obviously, someone is yanking your chain.

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    1. Yes, I see you. Feel better for trolling? There are better things to do.

      Delete
  10. What a wankstain.

    Anyway,, very moving and powerful post Amfy.

    The US army gets them young and indoctrinates them to unemotionally kill with songs [like they did in '91 bombing of Iraq] like Santa Claus is coming to town, a menacing song with words such as kill that motherfucker.....played over their headphones as they were carpet bombing. The evil men do to each other[and animals] makes my soul weep. ~Ubermouth~

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    1. Thank you, Uber. Now take a deep drink to swill the starter-naughty from your mouth. Today is Sunday and my bouncer hasn't put a lady over his knee all week.

      Better wear something nice.

      :)

      Delete
  11. You might be interested in the following related comments thread:

    http://www.thinkdefence.co.uk/2013/10/drones/

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    1. CherryPie, there is free drinks for a month in the bar for you. That is a superb link with hefty and educated comments, albeit at a slight tangent to my post.

      The Chain of Command issue has a strong 'Conscience' element that is all too often overlooked.

      Delete
  12. Yes it was a slight tangent to your post, but I had a feeling you would find it interesting ;-)

    I find many interesting articles and discussions on that blog.

    Free drinks for a month... You must have known it was my birthday soon ;-)

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  13. Haven't I seen this somewhere by you?

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    1. I did do a post previously, James, on this subject, but the situation has worsened over even that short time. More information comes out. More people need to know and form an opinion. Have a glass.

      Delete

Ne meias in stragulo aut pueros circummittam.

Our Bouncer is a gentleman of muscle and guile. His patience has limits. He will check you at the door.

The Tavern gets rowdy visitors from time to time. Some are brain dead and some soul dead. They attack customers and the bar staff and piss on the carpets. Those people will not be allowed in anymore. So... Be Nice..