A drone by any other name...

It has been a while since I have posted on the Faustian or the Signal.
Life has had me very busy.
Mea Culpa.

I have some stuff in draft that will come out soon, hopefully. Till then, I will post on some issues.
Also, look for some of my older stuff - essays, stories, and rants - on :
http://delirium-online.blogspot.ca

Drones and the face of war

Few topics get this old bayonet so riled up as autonomous fighting devices, and remote controlled killing machines. Drones, for short.
These disgusting perversions of reconnaissance vehicles have fast become the assassination weapon of choice for the ruling elites of the west. They are expensive, sure, but if they get shot down there is no politically embarrassing casualties and flag draped coffins. If they kill a few dozen innocents while striking their target, the 'pilot' only sees flashed on a screen. He does not see or smell the burning flesh.
He does not weave for his life to avoid the AA fires bristling up from defences.
 In today's world of undeclared non-wars against enemies labelled simply as 'terrorists', an empty autonomous or remotely controlled missile armed plane or (soon to be) robotic killing machine bristling with weaponry seem to fit in to the surreality of the whole mess just fine.
Call me old fashioned, but I think soldiers should fight and, when the horrible need is there,  die in those wars. I do not write that in frivolity, but as a man who has seen far too much of such violence and witnessed the death of dear friends and comrades.
I think soldiers should fight in wars because unlike technicians watching monitors, or CPU's calculating trajectories - soldiers FEEL the situation.
They are capable  of mercy; of discriminating morally between targets. They are HUMANS - not machines, nor even remote observers. They are real people immersed in the conflict about them.
When soldiers kill, it effects them.
When they die, it effects the war effort and the folks back home.
This is the 'cost' of war.
When the human elements are removed from war, all you are left with is clinical, efficient murder.
War of the kind being fought today appears designed to last forever.
To be perennial war. War as an industry with growth seasons.

The pilots of these things will now receive MEDALS for 'service'.
Let's be absolutely clear here: We are not talking about real pilots who are risking their lives over enemy positions and engaged in visceral combat with enemy pilots and defences. We are not talking about riflemen who spend days embedded in some frozen valley waiting for the right bunch of murderous bandit trash to wander by - risking it all  to take them down.
We are talking about technicians with the basic aptitudes and the right level of coordination.
Some of them may well be conscientious minded and responsible.
I hope and pray that is so.
But, we know from press leaks and briefings many of them  who are decent are destroyed by their experiences.  When I was in the active service the drone pilots were seen as misfits and 'fuck ups'.
Their handy work in the first strikes was seen by many  as horrific overkill.
The pilots, as we knew,  were off somewhere way back and safe (increasingly out of theatre).
It was also widely rumoured they were being doped for performance.
Rumours are rumours. I do not usually give them much of an ear.
I have no idea if anything like that is truly the case, but I will be frank: It would not surprise me at all when it comes to projects like the drone initiatives. I will reiterate: It would not surprise me on single iota under these specific circumstances.
Also,  the medals we are talking about are not career service medals  to be awarded after years of service, nor are they badges to indicate a campaign service.
These are HONOURS that will exceed that of the PURPLE HEART.
That is the United State's military medal for being wounded or killed in action.
Is a joystick jockey to be put ABOVE heroes?
ABOVE those wounded in action, and our war dead?
And it doesn't stop there.
It doesn't stop in some dusty village in some place you've never heard of....

They are now testing the use of these things domestically. In law enforcement circles, the US has gone bonkers for drones. Even here in Canada the RCMP in BC are 'experimenting' with  surveillance models.

Something needs to be done about these mechanical killers and spies. Air drones, land drones, and water/sea drones. They need to be regulated YESTERDAY.
We need controls and conventions for these things in the same way we do with nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons - not medals and parades for the quacks that invent them and the guys that push the button to order the kill.
We need some sanity restored here and we need it fast. 

Hegelian Dialectics

[O'Brien]"Now I will tell you the answer to my question. 
It is this. 
The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. 
We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power. 
Not wealth or luxury or long life or happiness; only power, pure power. 
What pure power means you will understand presently. 
We are different from all the oligarchies of the past in that we know what we are doing. 
All the others, even those who resembled ourselves, were cowards and hypocrites. 
The German Nazis and the Russian Communists came very close to us in their methods, 
but they never had the courage to recognize their own motives. 
They pretended, perhaps they even believed, that they had seized power unwillingly and for a limited time, 
and that just round the corner there lay a paradise where human beings would be free and equal. 
We are not like that. 
We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. 
Power is not a means; it is an end. 
One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; 
one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. 
The object of persecution is persecution. 
The object of torture is torture. 
The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?"
George Orwell, '1984', pg 234

The Arch Bishop of Canterbury resigns after Parliament is denied vote over Gay Marriage

Arch Bishop Williams has handed in his cap.
The oft controversially liberal Bishop resigned amid a parliamentary rebellion over Gay Marriage rights. Gay unions are legal in the UK, but the lib-dem opposition wants full blown marriage and the words 'husband and wife' removed from the legal documents. The idea is incredibly unpopular in the UK, and His Grace found himself on the side of the traditionalists, the majority of the population, the Monarch, and a very loud internal opposition in the Houses of Government. No matter, the Chancellor  Premier PM and his Deputy decided to push it through without a vote or referendum. Shades of the EU?
Anyway, to his credit, the Arch Bishop has resigned leaving his post open to succession, and quite probably the most conservative in years, and first  black Arch Bishop in history: Bishop Dr John Sentamu, of York. This would be a welcome change in the 80 million strong Anglican communion, and I as a member of the High Church welcome the idea with great hope.
A restoration of traditions and a new vigour is just what the doctor ordered. Some of Arch Bishop Williams efforts will be remembered with great pride, such as his overtures to Rome and his stance against Islamification and uber-secularism. Others will seem very placid and liberal. Over all I think he is good man and has done a good job. I wish him only God's grace and continued happiness and health. I do, however, look very much forward to this new man in Canterbury.
The full story, tabloid style, in the UK's Daily Mail:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2115851/Rowan-Williams-resigns-Archbishop-Canterbury-day-ahead-gay-marriage.html