Sunday, July 15, 2007

Humanless Reaper to Join His Inhumane Grim Companion


With the loss of over 650,000 lives and over 2,000,000 living as refugees since the American invasion of Iraq, the Grim Reaper's had a field day. The harvester of death will soon be joined by his Terminator like twin, a remotely operated death plane. The U.S. Air Force expects to operate The Reaper in both Afghanistan and Iraq in the near future. AP news reported:

The MQ-9 Reaper, when compared with the 1995-vintage Predator, represents a major evolution of the unmanned aerial vehicle, or UAV. At five tons gross weight, the Reaper is four times heavier than the Predator. Its size - 36 feet long, with a 66-foot wingspan - is comparable to the profile of the Air Force's workhorse A-10 attack plane. It can fly twice as fast and twice as high as the Predator. Most significantly, it carries many more weapons. While the Predator is armed with two Hellfire missiles, the Reaper can carry 14 of the air-to-ground weapons - or four Hellfires and two 500-pound bombs.

How does turning killing people into a long distance video game impact the practice of war? My guess is it makes it all the more impersonal, and isn't that the crux of the problem? Too many people can't seem to find the slightest shred of humanity in the other. The Reaper should make the problem worse...

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