I've been impressed with the capabilities of our technology. As an Air Force guy, I'm surprised that the Army doesn't give the Air Force more credit. The grunts rely on the availability of close air support and all operations are run with either a B1, an A10, an F15 or an MQ9 close at hand. The UCAVs (Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicles: the MQ9 and the MQ1) have these high resolution cameras on them and they fly really slow, so they can literally focus in on what someone is doing with their hands. They can see at night, they can see through things (infrared), and you never know one is around because they are little and quiet. They also remind me of home, because the UCAV missions are flown by remote control by miserable people in little metal boxes in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Anyway, I watch these video feeds and I'm impressed. Even the F15 has great cameras that scan the ground with really high resolution. They can literally see a bad guy with a gun from miles up in the air.
Highlight footage recorded by these aircraft cameras is distributed via thumbdrives (probably illegally), and it's used for inspirational purposes when put to a soundtrack-- like showing a reel of a football team's best plays before a big game. I'll give you an example of highlight footage: an unmanned aerial vehicle spots four guys who are lobbing mortars at a FOB in the middle of the night. The UCAV circles and waits until the four guys are clustered together around the mortar tube. You can see them talking and gesturing to each other. You can see their clothing move, see them scratch themselves, see the small pile of unfired ammunition on the ground. Then suddenly there is a flash and they all disappear in a cloud of dust... the UCAV has released its single AGM-114 Hellfire missile. As the dust clears, there is just a hole in the ground where the mortar crew was before, but one man manages to crawl out of the dust cloud, then gets up on his feet and tries to run, staggers, then falls, kicking up a small cloud of dust.
The UCAV footage is tame compared to the A10 footage. The A10's 30mm cannon shoots huge depleted uranium shells at 70 rounds per second. I was shown video of an A10 hitting a truck full of bad guys and then chasing down the survivors on three subsequent strafing runs.
A month ago that stuff would have disgusted me, but somehow I now take guilty comfort in those images. It's not pleasure-- I still think the images are disturbing-- but when I see those feeds at the TOC or hear a report that a bomb-maker a few miles from here blew himself up while preparing an IED made out of Italian anti-tank mines-- well I have to admit that I reflexively feel satisfied. Maybe it's just the tenor of war, that when you feel threatened you take incremental comfort in any damage to whose whom you perceive as your antagonists.
It's not vindictive. I think it's a natural response to fear. I think that's why the idea of "turning the other cheek" is indeed Christlike. What normal human can really live that creed in both thought and deed?
Anyway, I watch these video feeds and I'm impressed. Even the F15 has great cameras that scan the ground with really high resolution. They can literally see a bad guy with a gun from miles up in the air.
Highlight footage recorded by these aircraft cameras is distributed via thumbdrives (probably illegally), and it's used for inspirational purposes when put to a soundtrack-- like showing a reel of a football team's best plays before a big game. I'll give you an example of highlight footage: an unmanned aerial vehicle spots four guys who are lobbing mortars at a FOB in the middle of the night. The UCAV circles and waits until the four guys are clustered together around the mortar tube. You can see them talking and gesturing to each other. You can see their clothing move, see them scratch themselves, see the small pile of unfired ammunition on the ground. Then suddenly there is a flash and they all disappear in a cloud of dust... the UCAV has released its single AGM-114 Hellfire missile. As the dust clears, there is just a hole in the ground where the mortar crew was before, but one man manages to crawl out of the dust cloud, then gets up on his feet and tries to run, staggers, then falls, kicking up a small cloud of dust.
The UCAV footage is tame compared to the A10 footage. The A10's 30mm cannon shoots huge depleted uranium shells at 70 rounds per second. I was shown video of an A10 hitting a truck full of bad guys and then chasing down the survivors on three subsequent strafing runs.
A month ago that stuff would have disgusted me, but somehow I now take guilty comfort in those images. It's not pleasure-- I still think the images are disturbing-- but when I see those feeds at the TOC or hear a report that a bomb-maker a few miles from here blew himself up while preparing an IED made out of Italian anti-tank mines-- well I have to admit that I reflexively feel satisfied. Maybe it's just the tenor of war, that when you feel threatened you take incremental comfort in any damage to whose whom you perceive as your antagonists.
It's not vindictive. I think it's a natural response to fear. I think that's why the idea of "turning the other cheek" is indeed Christlike. What normal human can really live that creed in both thought and deed?
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