Today , our president said every soldier in Iraq is coming home , go many to believe The War Is Over . Except it ’s not . Getting world out of there is great , but the fact is state of war today does n’t need humans at all .
The latterly - ended Libyan war is the perfect example of why soldiers are n’t needful for war , and why boots off the priming do n’t intend much anymore . The rebel background campaign was the majority of the warfare , but the aerial minority made rotation possible . The US had neither the livelihood nor the means to overrun Libya . It would ’ve been both a political and military blooper . So we had robots do the work for us — and it worked , perfectly . Qaddafi ’s air defence and armour were obliterated from control rooms a world aside . And this same drone protection has no understanding to give Iraq — the warfare in the sky will continue indefinitely , and invisibly .
In Virginia and secret Base throughout Afghanistan and Pakistan , the CIA controls a fleet of MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper drones , subject of nailing targets with hundred pound Hellfire projectile as they buzz along most - silently overhead . It ’s a exponent unprecedented in the account of blowing matter sup , and not one the CIA is get to renounce . The fleet is n’t accountable to the world . As the Washington Post reportedearlier this year , “ The CIA does n’t officially acknowledge the drone program , let alone leave public account about who flash and who cash in one’s chips , and by what dominion . ” And given the agency ’s explosion of replication - little terror operators , tug to dig up “ targeting ” information and pulling triggers , the agency has every rationality to stay aloft in Iraq . “ Presumably , we ’re finding people to blow up in Yemen , ” agrees defence think tankGlobalSecurity’sJohn Pike , “ so [ from the CIA ’s perspective ] there will be some who need to be blown up in Iraq . ” Pike , who has testified before Congress in subject of internal defense and collaborated with NASA , know drones . And he does n’t think they ’re going anywhere .
“ UAVs provide a persistent surveillance capability that planet do not , ” Pike explains , giving the government more reason to keep them flying over Baghdad long after american soldiers have been shipped home . The warfare on terror is indefinite and sprawling , with every in of the world a possible target . The near futurity of Iraq — peculiarly post - moving in — will be a shivering one . The CIA does n’t want shivering futures . “ Any country where we feel the government does n’t have effective control of its territory , and [ it ] ca n’t be solved via natural law enforcement — that ’s why we have drones . ” Iraq has no aviation force . Iraq ’s ability to prevent itself from harboring enemy of the CIA is dubious . This gives America ’s drone fleet a self - justification to fell ad infinitum , and for a smaller state of war of remote humming and crater to continue as long as the CIA desire .
So how will we ever know when we continue onslaught inside Iraq ? We won’t — except “ the multitude who get blow up . And even they wo n’t know what bechance , ” say Pike .
Photo by USAF
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