From UFPJ Listserve

On 2/5/2013, Ron wrote:
>I agree with drone stikes 110%. No wars. No
>boots on the ground. No troops in harm's way.
>Protection for innocent women and children
>against radical segments and terrorists hiding in third world nations.

Response from David Swanson:
1. Learn math
2. Learn that drone pilots suffer HIGHER PTSD and have taken their own
lives because they grasp better than their fans what's going on here, and
that drones have taken US lives by accident as well as by design
3. There were no goddamn boots on the ground in Yemen and now there soon
may be because of the temptation of the technology spreading death into new
areas, not scaling it back in existing ones
4. If you're not murdering troops, who exactly are you murdering with these
things? You have no idea whatsoever. You can't possibly. Even Congress
doesn't. All we know is that there are huge numbers of people killed
without being targeted, those targeted include men women and children,
those targeted include rescuers of injured from previous strikes, those
targeted include people whose names are not known, those targeted do not
include a single person charged with or tried for any crime
5. These actions are making us all less safe; check the polling on US govt
popularity in Pakistan and Yemen; check the growth of terrorism
6. Call it no wars, but only by calling it wars do they even pretend it's
somehow legal; there is no legislative or judicial or public or adult
supervision
7. What the FUCK is a segment? You don't mean a human being, do you?

Response from Michael Eisenscher:

If drones are so effective, why does we need to use more and more of them every year?
Could it be because they create more enemies than they assassinate?
If drones are so precise and accurate, why do so many innocent civilians die when they are used? Could it be because they are neither precise, nor accurate?
If drones eliminate the need for troops, why do we have so many of them in so many places they don't belong?  Why does the military budget consume 57% of all discretionary spending?  Why does the Pentagon resist any reduction in its funding?  Why do we need more than 1000 bases around the world?  Why is the government investing in new weaponry that is used by troops?
If drones are the key to ending terrorism, why are so many people in the countries where they are used getting angrier and more hostile toward the U.S.?
Hmmmmm!  A little critical thinking combined with facts rather than manufactured myths and self-deceptive illusions goes a long way!

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This is not from the listserve, but I like this quote:

"As the country tortures, so do its citizens. As it kills for material gains, ego replenishment or just the hell of it, most casually, so do Americans. As it robs weaker nations, its teens swarm stores to shoplift. As the country preemptively attacks its trumped up or imaginary enemies, so do its cheap beer swilling couch potatoes. ….   If up for a movie out, they can choose between John Dies at the End, Knife Fight, Texas Chainsaw in 3D, Zero Dark Thirty, Broken City or Bullet to the Head. “Revenge never gets old.” While droning, bombing and starving foreigners, Obama charms on television." – Linh Dinh