The Great Wars of the American Empire: The Philippine Mamasapano ‘Operation Exodus’ Debacle

This post by retired Professor Michael Rozeff at the Lew Rockwell looks very relevant applied to the Philippines today: (bold mine)

Looking at a map of current American military engagements overseas, one cannot help but notice their wide geographical spread and their seemingly interminable nature. Battles have raged in Europe (Yugoslavia and Ukraine), in Africa, in the Middle East, and in central Asia. The American Empire has launched this country into a series of battles that have no end in sight and no location that may not become a focal point of military force. These battles, each a war in its own right, have drawn in forces and resources from U.S. allies in Europe through NATO and even drawn in Japan. The scope of this war is global. In fact, one part of this war has been called the Global War on Terror. To understand this war and grasp its meaning, in the hope of bringing it to an end, a descriptive name is needed that tells us what this war is about. The name suggested here is the “Great War of the American Empire”. Since World War I, another disastrous war that American joined, is called the Great War, we can refer to the Great War of the American Empire also as Great War II.

Great War II comprises a number of sub-wars. The American Empire is the common element and the most important driver in all the sub-wars mentioned below. American involvement has never been necessary in these sub-wars, but the decisions to make them America’s business have come from the Empire’s leaders. The name “Great War of the American Empire” emphasizes the continuity of all the sub-wars to produce one Great War, and the responsibility of the American Empire in choosing to participate in and create this Great War. Had America’s leaders chosen the radically different path of non-intervention and true defense of this continent, rather than overseas interventions, Great War II would not have occurred and not still be occurring.

The Great War of the American Empire began 25 years ago. It began on August 2, 1990 with the Gulf War against Iraq and continues to the present. Earlier wars involving Israel and America sowed the seeds of this Great War. So did American involvements in Iran, the 1977-1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran, and the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988). Even earlier American actions also set the stage, such as the recognition of Israel, the protection of Saudi Arabia as an oil supplier, the 1949 CIA involvement in the coup in Syria, and the American involvement in Lebanon in 1958. Poor (hostile) relations between the U.S. and Libya (1979-1986) also contributed to a major sub-war in what has turned out to be the Great War of the American Empire.

The inception of Great War II may, if one likes, be moved back to 1988 and 1989 without objection because those years also saw the American Empire coming into its own in the invasion of Panama to dislodge Noriega, operations in South America associated with the war on drugs, and an operation in the Philippines to protect the Aquino government. Turmoil in the Soviet Union was already being reflected in a more military-oriented foreign policy of the U.S.

Following the Gulf War, the U.S. government engages America and Americans non-stop in one substantial military operation or war after another. In the 1990s, these include Iraq no-fly zones, Somalia, Bosnia, Macedonia, Haiti, Zaire, Sierra Leone, Central African Republic, Liberia, Albania, Afghanistan, Sudan, and Serbia. In the 2000s, the Empire begins wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya, and gets into serious military engagements in Yemen, Pakistan, and Syria. It has numerous other smaller military missions in Uganda, Jordan, Turkey, Chad, Mali, and Somalia. Some of these sub-wars and situations of involvement wax and wane and wax again. The latest occasion of American Empire intervention is Ukraine where, among other things, the U.S. military is slated to be training Ukrainian soldiers.

Terror and terrorism are invoked to rationalize some operations. Vague threats to national security are mentioned for others. Protection of Americans and American interests sometimes is made into a rationale. Terrorism and drugs are sometimes linked, and sometimes drug interdiction alone is used to justify an action that becomes part of the Great War of the American Empire. On several occasions, war has been justified because of purported ethnic cleansing or supposed mass killings directed by or threatened by a government.

Upon close inspection, all of these rationales fall apart. None is satisfactory. The interventions are too widespread, too long-lasting and too unsuccessful at what they supposedly accomplish to lend support to any of the common justifications. Is “good” being done when it involves endless killing, frequently of innocent bystanders, that elicits more and more anti-American sentiment from those on the receiving end who see Americans as invaders? Has the Great War II accomplished even one of its supposed objectives?

The Great War of the American Empire encompasses several sub-wars, continual warfare, continual excuses for continual warfare, and continual military engagements that promise Americans more of the same indefinitely. There is a web site called “The Long War Journal”that catalogs events all over the globe that are part of the Great War II, what the site calls the Long War. This site is a project of the “Foundation for Defense of Democracies”, which is a neocon organization that is promoting the Great War of the American Empire.

What they see, and accurately see, as a Long War is a portion of what is here called the Great War of the American Empire. The difference is that all the interventions and sub-wars of the past 25 years and all the military outposts of the U.S. government that provide the seeds of future wars and interventions are included in the Great War II. They all spring from the same source, even though each one has a different specific character.

"Several sub-wars, continual warfare, continual excuses for continual warfare, and continual military engagements…" For “the latest occasion of American Empire intervention” Professor Rozeff should now include the Philippines.

In 2012 I posted here of a US drone strike against supposed domestic  terrorists that cost many civilian lives. The event had been sparsely covered by international media and appears to have existed in a vacuum in domestic media.

Apparently that has been an appetizer for things to come…

The latest fiasco from the anti terrorism operations conducted  by the Philippine government at Mamasapano Maguindanao last January 25, which claimed lives of 44 government SAF (Special Action Force) at least 18 from the Moro International Liberation Front (MILF), 5 from the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters  and several civilians, appears to have the US government’s imperial fingerprints all over it.

And many of these accounts have been been covered by both domestic and international media.

Drones had reportedly been active during the pre-operations surveillance “Drones ‘twinkled at night’” (Inquirer) and during the operations: “US drone watched Mamasapano debacle” (Inquirer). 

Malaysian bomb expert Zulkifli Abdhir or nicknamed “Marwan”, one of the targets of the operations, reportedly wrote to his brother via email, just prior to his death, to detail on the US involvement in the campaign against Muslim rebels by the use of Orion spy planes and Predator drones (Philstar/MSN)

There was even reports that an American had been killed during the operations but has been (naturally) denied by the US embassy (Rappler). 

Low intensity operations-conflicts (LICs) are frequently considered “classified information”, thus will be denied…until exposed or declassified after several years.

Curiously, headlines over the past few days has been buzzing with accounts of direct US government involvement in Philippine affairs. 

A Philippine politician reported of ‘secret embassy cables’ that was exposed by Wikileaks in 2010 of how the US government had funded and planned counterterrorism measures in the south that may have led to the clash (Philstar)

Yesterday’s headlines showed that based on testimony of an insider or an anonymous SAF officer, who reportedly said “Americans dictated every move”, the US was behind Oplan Exodus (Inquirer).

Today’s headlines shows that there have been ‘8 Americans sighted monitoring Oplan Exodus’ (Inquirer) where American officials monitored the execution of plan that went awry.

This reminds me of the infamous Bay of Pigs. The Bay of Pigs operations according to wikipedia.org was “a failed military invasion of Cuba undertaken by the CIA-sponsored paramilitary group Brigade 2506 on 17 April 1961.  A counter-revolutionary military, trained and funded by the United States government's Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Brigade 2506 fronted the armed wing of the Democratic Revolutionary Front (DRF) and intended to overthrow the Communist government of Fidel Castro. Launched from Guatemala, the invading force was defeated within three days by the Cuban armed forces, under the direct command of Prime Minister of Cuba Fidel Castro.”

The modern day equivalent of the CIA-sponsored paramilitary group then has been the Philippine SAF. Instead of an invasion in the name of anti-communism then, today has been about assassinations in the name of war on terror. 

The Bay of Pigs was initially denied by officials (History Channel) but later admitted to by the late US President John F Kennedy (JFK). Eventually chain of events from the Bay of Pigs led to the assassination of JFK

Back to the Mamasapano blunder.

Has this been the quid pro quo from all the credit rating upgrades the Philippine government has received from the US credit ratings?  For the Philippine government to fight the American empire's ‘Great Wars’ here, as a vassal state and or as proxy?

You see credit ratings has embedded political colors too.

For instance, the US government’s economic sanctions against Russia (due to their Ukraine standoff) has indirectly incited downgrades on Russia’s debt by the major western credit ratings. Reasons for downgrades seems founded on infirm grounds according to Sprott Money analysis. So having interpreted political dimension for such actions, in response, the governments of China and Russia have been working to establish their own credit rating agencies to rival or to counter the western peers (Reuters, RT.com)

In other words, in today's financialization of the global economy, credit ratings can serve as instruments of political control (carrot and stick) or even psychological warfare

What seems as, hasn’t been what really is. 

These are just examples of possible asymmetric non-linear linkages in a complex world.

Very interesting developments.

Geopolitical Risk Theater Links: Thailand’s Hunger Games, ISIS Expansion, US 500th Drone Strike, Terror Not Excuse for Foreign Wars and more…

1 Hunger Games Thailand edition? : When Life Imitates 'The Hunger Games' in Thailand, the Atlantic November 21, 2014

2 Geopolitical blackmail continues: North Korea Conducts Ejection Test of Sub-Launched Missile Test indicates progress in submarine missile development Freebeacon.com November 21,2014

3 The nuclear race is ON: China's Nuclear Weapons Are Getting Bigger And More Destructive Business Insider November 20,2014

4 Hasn’t it been obvious? A Russia-China Military Alliance May Not Be As Far-Fetched As Many Think Business Insider November 21,2014 They are already part of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization which according to Wikipedia “is a Eurasian political, economic and military organization”

5 Like stocks, ISIS momentum keeps rollin’: ISIS Has An Important Iraqi City Surrounded Business Insider November 21, 2014

6 ISIS draws criticism from peer (ally?) Al Qaeda in Yemen rebukes ISIS CNN.com November 21, 2014 

7 If ISIS has international recruits, so does the Kurdish forces: Canadian veterans join Kurdish battle against ISIS RT.com November 22, 2014 

8 US government’s favorite assassin: America’s 500th Drone Strike Launched in Pakistan Six 'Suspects' Killed in Latest Attack Antiwar.com November 21, 2014 Question is who gets killed; militants or innocent bystanders labeled as militants? 

9 Oops, developing cracks on Western Sanctions against Russia? Serbia won’t join anti-Russian sanctions club despite EU pressure - Nikolic RT.com November 20, 2014 

Serbia is not planning to impose sanctions on Russia, said its President Tomislav Nikolic after meeting EU Commissioner Johannes Hahn. The latter said the EU expects Serbia to bring its policy in line with the European one if it seeks to enter the union.

Nikolic said that Serbia is not planning to introduce sanctions at the moment, though admitting the country is seeking EU membership which implies an obligation to pursue common policies, including foreign.

10 More beating of the war drums: Russia warns US against supplying ‘lethal defensive aid’ to Ukraine RT.com November 21, 2014

Moscow has warned Washington a potential policy shift from supplying Kiev with “non-lethal aid” to “defensive lethal weapons”, mulled as US Vice President visits Ukraine, would be a direct violation of all international agreements.

A Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson said that reports of possible deliveries of American “defensive weapons” to Ukraine would be viewed by Russia as a “very serious signal.”

11 More testing of tolerance limits: NATO scrambles jets 400 times in 2014 as Russian air activity jumps Yahoo.com November 21, 2014

12 The slippery slope to totalitariansism: Terror Is Also Not a Reason or Argument for Foreign Wars Michael S. Rozeff Lew Rockwell Blog November 21,2014

Writes Michael Rozeff

But terror and terrorists cannot possibly justify such wars, and preventive wars at that. Terrorists are a problem that is unsettling, but it also has limited and sporadic sources, even if they can inflict great damage at times. The problem requires identification and location of terrorists. How can war, which is such a blunt instrument, an instrument of mass destruction, be justified against such a threat? How can the U.S. possibly use terrorist threats to justify the unseating and destroying of entire governments, the destroying of whole infrastructures, the throwing of countries and societies into massive turmoil, and the killing and wounding of innocent civilians in large numbers? How can the U.S. justify exacerbating religious and ethnic differences, ruining landmarks and turning countries into armed camps engaged in internecine warfare? There is absolutely no excuse for this. Terror, terrorism, terrorists and terror events provide absolutely no excuse for such huge human rights violations. 9/11 doesn’t justify this. Nothing can be brought forward that justifies it. There is zero moral justification for what America has done in the name of fighting terror.

Here at home, the federal government has militarized every force within all of its many agencies that do any kind of policing. Not only have local police forces become militarized, but so have every possible arm of the federal government. The Department of Homeland Security is but one umbrella for these many forces. By one count there are now more than 70 such militarized federal agencies. 

The government has used terror and terrorism as an excuse or pretext for militarizing itself and arming itself to the teeth. These forces stand ready to dominate Americans at every turn and create a nightmare police state in this country. Any excuse from a bomb threat to a hurricane can be used to mobilize one or more of these forces. One vindictive word or one phone call can unleash a number of SWAT teams against some innocent person or get them detained or get their names placed on a no-fly list or some other list.

Chinese company uses drones for cake delivery services

Drones serve as instruments to an end. 

In politics, drones have been used to kill political opponents or for spying/surveillance. As a destructive weapon to attain foreign policy goals, for every drone strike, 50 civilians are killed for every terrorist, notes the Policymic.com. The children death toll from drones attacks in Pakistan has now reached 94 according to Foreign Policy

But there is a brighter side for the alternative uses of drones.

A company in China uses “cheap drones” to service cake deliveries

From Shanghai Daily: (hat tip zero hedge)

HAVE the cake and eat it too.

And get it delivered in style as well.

In a crazy story that would make even spy master James Bond sit up and take notice, a local cake factory is using drones to deliver cakes in Shanghai! And China's civil aviation authorities are not too happy about it.

The factory used remote-controlled aircraft on five different occasions to "fly" cakes across the Huangpu River to customers in downtown, claimed Men Ruifeng, the marketing manager of the Incake company, which only accepts orders online.

The drone, measuring 1.1 meters in diameter and fitted with five propellers, flies at a height of about 100 meters and can be remotely controlled over several kilometers. It has two cameras and the controller can pilot it from a nearby vehicle, Men said.

The company has three such drones, all of them refitted from a Chinese-made aviation model.

Commercial applications of drones, as previously pointed out, will largely be positive or constructive for society.

The Politics of Territorial Dispute: Moral Suasion through Populist Nationalism

One of the wonderful example of the use of moral suasion to implement social policies is through populist nationalism.

Take the tough talk by the Philippine president on yesterday’s holiday celebration where he mentioned that the Philippines “will not back down from any challenge” on territorial dispute, or in the previous occasion, to defend against “bullies in our backyard” 

The nationalist meme essentially justifies the government’s defense military spending which according to an official, is “at levels never before seen”. [This administration seems enamored with “new order” sloganeering]

According to GMA Network, 

President Benigno Aquino III signed the new Armed Forces of the Philippines Modernization Act, which will have an allocation of around P75 billion in its first five years.

The Aquino administration has spent more than P28 billion for the AFP modernization program, compared to around P33 billion spent for the same purpose 15 years before his term.

And a few days back, the $15.5 million refurbished decommissioned US Coast Guard ship became part of the Philippine military’s inventory to supposedly defend the nation’s territorial boundaries.

Anyone with an iota of commonsense would realize that no matter how the Philippines government spends on defense, she can hardly match China’s military capabilities. 

In naval warship inventories alone China has 972 as against 110 for the Philippines from (globalfire.com). Yet numbers are not enough. One must  note that the Philippine government hardly has any new hardware, as against generically developed weaponry from China.

From the Wired.com

Two new models of stealthy jet fighter. A new(ish) aircraft carrier. Separate ballistic missiles for targeting orbital satellites and ships at sea. A host of cyberespionage tools. Everybody's already heard about China's main new weapon systems, developed and deployed in alternating fits of secrecy and pageantry over the past decade of the Middle Kingdom's explosive economic and military growth.

And as pointed out in the past China has drones and nuclear weapons. This means that such nationalist mantra represents nothing more than bravado.

Rather, populist politics has been an instrument used to expand control over society. For instance, despite the so-called booming economy, this administration appears to be in desperation to tax and squeeze the productive segments of society.

In addition, as I pointed out in the past the territorial disputes seems more and more like smokescreens to promote the military industrial complex as well as to expand US military presence here. 

Such conflict could also have been used as pretext to divert people’s attention from real economic problems as well as to justify inflating the system. 

The nationalism bluster justifying the defense buildup looks like Indiana Jones versus the sword master, in the Raiders of the Lost Ark

At the end of the day, promoting free trade would be the best way to attain regional or global cooperation.

US Government Admits: Drone Warfare Killed Innocent Americans

Imperial US foreign policies coursed through drone warfare has killed even their own citizens

From the New York Times: (hat tip Zero Hedge)

In a letter to Congressional leaders obtained by The New York Times, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. disclosed that the administration had deliberately killed Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical Muslim cleric who was killed in a drone strike in September 2011 in Yemen.

The American responsibility for Mr. Awlaki’s death has been widely reported, but the administration had until now refused to confirm or deny it.

The letter also said that the United States had killed three other Americans: Samir Khan, who was killed in the same strike; Mr. Awlaki’s son Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, who was also killed in Yemen; and Jude Mohammed, who was killed in a strike in Pakistan.

“These individuals were not specifically targeted by the United States,” Mr. Holder wrote.

Are these more signs of things to come? Will drones be used against the US citizens in their homeland in the name of public safety?

Free Market’s Response to Government Drone Spying: The Drone Shield

The US government has been foisting the legitimization of the use of drones (as many as 30,000) to patrol the skies to allegedly to maintain ‘public safety’. 

While there may be emergent anti-drone technology such as the laser weapon system, the free markets seems to have a cheaper response to the threat of UAV government surveillance or of the intrusion to privacy: the Drone Shield 

From the USNews.com (hat tip EPJ)

Worried about drones spying on you? Soon, a device might be able to send you text and email alerts that let you know when a drone is nearby.

A Washington, D.C.-based engineer is working on the "Drone Shield," a small, Wi-Fi-connected device that uses a microphone to detect a drone's "acoustic signatures" (sound frequency and spectrum) when it's within range.

The company's founder, John Franklin, who has been working in aerospace engineering for seven years, says he hopes to start selling the device sometime this year. He is using the Kickstarter-like Indiegogo to finance the project.

The device will cost $69 and will be about the size of a USB thumb drive. It will use Raspberry Pi – a tiny, $25 computer – and commercially available microphones to detect drones. He says he imagines that people will attach the Drone Shield to their fences or roofs to protect their home from surveillance.

"People will get the alert and then close their blinds," Franklin says.

Every attempt by governments to establish a police state through technology will eventually be met by a pushback from the markets.

In the future, drones will likely be used more by the markets.

On the Boston Bombing and the US Police State

Mainstream media has been projecting that the Boston bombing incident has been a triumph of government over terrorism.

But there has been more than meets the eye. Many of things has been occurring beyond the surface.

There was supposedly a police drill that happened “complete with bomb squads and rooftop snipers” at the start of the race. A mere coincidence?

Suspected terrorists have reportedly been “manipulated and harassed” by US authorities for years even before the atrocious act.

Here is Daniel McAdams at the Lew Rockwell Blog:

As Infowars reports, the Boston Bomber the Younger had been manipulated and harassed by the FBI for years. How many of the post-9/11 wannabe terrorists have been actually developed, nurtured, and supported by the FBI and other US intelligence agencies? All of them? These guys too? Will no one but LRC and Alex Jones ask the question?

Hemingway was a paranoid who killed himself over his delusions that he was being followed and manipulated by the US intelligence agencies. What a kook! Until it came out that he was in fact being followed and manipulated by US intelligence agencies.

How much more power and money do they have now, sixty years and many convenient terrorist attacks later? How many of these terrorists are the creation of the FBI and homeland security and the shadow government? Sure, it's kooky to even ask the question. But evidence shows this is a very kooky time. Maybe we can ask the Black and Tans what they think about it... Whoa, I sound like a kook.

UPDATE: In answer to my questions above, it turns out even the establishment New York Times reports that "Of the 22 most frightening plans for attacks since 9/11 on American soil, 14 were developed in sting operations." In other words, two-thirds of the planned terrorist attacks against us were hatched by our own government!

TV personality Glenn Beck points to a supposed cover up by the White House on an alleged involvement of a Saudi national. Conspiracy theory?

The manhunt against 2 bombers turned part of Boston into a virtual police state. People homes had been raided even without search warrants. More photos here. And such martial law tactics used to happen only in banana republics. Not anymore. 

Yet the martial law in Boston didn’t lead to the arrest of the second suspect, the community did.

From Boston.com (hat tip Professor David Henderson)

By 6 p.m., frustrated officials relaxed the rule and allowed residents to leave their homes. The people of Watertown began to venture outside.

But within an hour, the crack of gunshots again blasted through the neighborhood. ­Sirens blared, and officers on foot scrambled down Franklin Street.

Police found Dzhokhar ­Tsarnaev hiding on a boat stored in a backyard on ­Franklin Street. Police ­exchanged gunfire with him before capturing him alive. Spontaneous celebrations erupted across the region, from the ­Boston Common to the Back Bay streets near the bombing.

The boat’s owners, a couple, spent Friday hunkered down under the stay-at-home order. When it was lifted early in the evening, they ventured outside for some fresh air and the man noticed the tarp on his boat blowing in the wind, according to their his son, Robert Duffy.

The cords securing it had been cut and there was blood near the straps. Duffy’s father called police, who swarmed the yard and had the couple evacuated, Duffy said.

Residents, who had barricaded themselves in their homes for nearly 20 hours, were still deeply shaken.

Shaken by whom, the terrorists or by police action?
 
And in spite of the community lockdown, authorities “requested” or "chose" Dunkin Donuts to remain open, from another Boston.com article

On block after block of the Boston’s Financial District and Downtown Crossing, Starbucks shops went dark as the city locked down, spurred by a manhunt for the second marathon bombing suspect. Dunkin’ Donuts stayed open.

Law enforcement asked the chain to keep some restaurants open in locked-down communities to provide hot coffee and food to police and other emergency workers, including in Watertown, the focus of the search for the bombing suspect. Dunkin’ is providing its products to them for free.

Cronyism amidst the police state? Think of free lunches for authorities. No wonder the allure of the police state. 

Meanwhile while media blares about the virtues of capturing suspects of the Boston bombing, the US Senate passed a Cyber 'privacy-infringement' law without much ado from the public.

Former Texas Congressman Ron Paul writes,

While it did not receive nearly as much attention as the debate on gun control, the House of Representatives passed legislation with significant implications for individual liberty: the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA). CISPA proponents claim that the legislation is necessary to protect Americans from foreign “cyber terrorists,” but the real effect of this bill will be to further erode Americans’ online privacy.

Boston bombing as a diversion tactic?

And the Boston incident had also been used as justification for a clampdown on people’s civil liberties. More from Mr. Paul

Sadly, I expect this week’s tragic attacks in Boston to be used to justify new restrictions on liberty. Within 48 hours of the attack in Boston, at least one Congressman was calling for increased use of surveillance cameras to expand the government’s ability to monitor our actions, while another Senator called for a federal law mandating background checks before Americans can buy “explosive powder.”

If there is any clue which the unfortunate Boston Incident tell us, it is that the US seems headed towards a police state.

For instance, 1.6 billion rounds of ammo have been recently purchased by the Department of Homeland Security.

From the Forbes.com

The Denver Post, on February 15^th, ran an Associated Press article entitled Homeland Security aims to buy 1.6b rounds of ammo, so far to little notice.  It confirmed that the Department of Homeland Security has issued an open purchase order for 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition.  As reported elsewhere, some of this purchase order is for hollow-point rounds, forbidden by international law for use in war, along with a frightening amount specialized for snipers. Also reported elsewhere, at the height of the Iraq War the Army was expending less than 6 million rounds a month.  Therefore 1.6 billion rounds would be enough to sustain a hot war for 20+ years.  In America.

For what? Has the DHS been preparing for foreign invasion or the Red dawn? Or alien invasion?

The Boston incident adds to many more signs of America’s transition towards a police state or the "Road to serfdom".

Meanwhile a suicide bombing in Iraq claimed 32 lives and wounded 65 more. Yet such incident hardly gets into the headlines. Why?

Also a US Senator estimates death toll from US drones at 4,700 which included civilians. The senator says because of war, collateral damage is legit. Notice the self-contradiction?  In war, any American civilian fatalities are considered immoral, but foreign civilian deaths are justified. Could such kind of cavalier thinking and actions prompted for the growth of terrorism?

Yet along with the fast expanding police state is the widening dragnet of financial repression via QE, negative interest rates, more taxes, more regulations, FACTA and etc..

Americans seem to have forgotten the admonitions of Benjamin Franklin on sacrificing liberty for safety 

They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

China’s Cheap Drones: A Threat to Whom?

This article is worried that China’s cheap clones may end up in the wrong hands, or could be owned and used by the adversaries of the US government.

From Technewsdaily.com

Cheap drones made in China could end up arming potential U.S. foes such as North Korea, Iran and terrorist organizations.

China already makes drones that don't quite match up to U.S. military drones, but for a fraction of the cost. The Chinese military envisions such unmanned autonomous vehicles (UAVs) scouting out battlefield targets, guiding missile and artillery strikes, and swarming potential adversaries, such as U.S. carrier battle groups…

China has built a huge military-industrial complex to support its growing drone fleet, which consisted of about 280 military drones as of mid-2011, according to a report released by the Project 2049 Institute on March 11. Chinese manufacturers supplying the military and state agencies also have begun seeking foreign buyers in a global drone market that aerospace and defense market research firm Teal Group estimates to be worth $89 billion over the next 10 years…

The idea of cheap, China-made drones may not tempt countries such as Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Australia or NATO allies that want to buy the best U.S. or Israeli drone hardware. Instead, China is seeking buyers in the Middle East and Africa at glitzy expositions such as China’s biennial Zhuhai Air Show.

While such concern could partially be true, considering the estimated $89 billion market, my guess is that China’s cheap drones will likely threaten politically connected US drone providers/suppliers more than terrorists or US foes having access to them. 

Besides, anti-drone laser weapon system has already been developed. Foes of the governments are likely to use them than use drones.

Yet demand for commercial drones has been estimated to reach 10,000 according to the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). 

Many of such demand come from hobbyists.

A good example of the growing commercial use of drones has been in photography or cinematography particularly in the covering of field events. The Golf Channel used a drone to film a recently held tournament, according to the Business Insider.

The point is commercialization of drones will likely mean more price competition, more innovation, more applications and an increasing use of them by the markets. China's cheap drones may be one factor in driving the commercialization of drones.

German Firm Introduces Anti Drone Laser Weapon System

Well it would seem that drones or the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAVs) has met its nemesis; laser weapons ala star wars.

From the BBC

A laser weapons system that can shoot down two drones at a distance of over a mile has been demonstrated by Rheinmetall Defence.

The German defence firm used the high-energy laser equipment to shoot fast-moving drones at a distance.

The system, which uses two laser weapons, was also used to cut through a steel girder a kilometre away.

The company plans to make the laser weapons system mobile and to integrate automatic cannon.

The 50kW laser weapons system used radar and optical systems to detect and track two incoming drones, the company said. The nose-diving drones were flying at 50 metres per second, and were shot down when they reached a programmed fire sector.

Drones have commonly been used to conduct not only surveillance but also foreign policies in terms of assassination and or bombing missions. Drone warfare has only stoked up anti-American sentiment in the Middle East that has incited more unrest.

Drone warfare has also been reportedly used to strike at suspected terrorists in the Philippines as part of the ‘war on terror’ campaign which allegedly resulted to losses of civilians

Last month, a crashed drone was fished off floating near the Masbate Islands where the US authorities denied that the discovered UAV wreckage had been used for spying or for armed military missions. The increasing reports of incidences of drones could likely be manifestations of the surreptitious deal to re-establish a US base in the Philippines or that the Philippines becomes a launchpad for militarization of Southeast Asia.

In the US, drones have been designated as the next airborne police surveillance where an estimated 30,000 drones have been slated to patrol US airspace at the end of the decade. Unfortunately for the tyrants, many states in the US have balked or expressed opposition to this. For instance, Florida voted to ban drones as an instrument for spying on the citizenry.

Well of course, drones and other forms robotic war machines may not entirely be the domain of the government, as other groups (including outlaws) may access such technology.

The important point is that innovative developments in technology reveal that the drone warfare won’t likely be as dominant as feared. There will be less need to hack on drones to countercheck on them. 

The emergence of laser warfare technology, which is expected to become mobile in the future, will surely contain the advances of drones. The above technology seems reminiscent or the modern day counterpart of the shoulder fired anti-aircraft surface to air missile (SAM), the FIM-92 stinger, which played a prominent role in the defeat of the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. 

Drone Warfare: Systematic Mass Killing of Innocents

It is sad and revolting to see how the recent gruesome shooting spree in Newtown Connecticut had claimed 27 innocent lives mostly children.

Yet what has been largely ignored by the public is how belligerent imperial US foreign policies continues to sow terror to unarmed civilians through drone warfare overseas.

This report from Daily Mail says that a US military personnel quit his job after learning of needless civilian deaths…many of them children.

A former U.S. drone operator has opened up about the toll of killing scores of innocent people by pressing a button from a control room in New Mexico.

Brandon Bryant, 27, from Missoula, Montana, spent six years in the Air Force operating Predator drones from inside a dark container.

But, after following orders to shoot and kill a child in Afghanistan, he knew he couldn't keep doing what he was doing and quit the military.

'I saw men, women and children die during that time,' he told Spiegel Online. 'I never thought I would kill that many people. In fact, I thought I couldn't kill anyone at all.'

Mass killings should be seen in a broader context and not just in the US.

As John Aziz at the lewrockwell.com/zero hedge observed: (bold original)

And if we value life and are opposed to violence against innocents, why do we demand action when 27 innocent Americans die, but not when larger numbers of innocent Pakistanis, or Afghanis or Yemenis die? One drone strike in Pakistan killed 69 children, dwarfing the impact of the Newtown Massacre. With predator drones now in American skies, how long until the “collateral damage” (remember – the NDAA declared the entirety of America as a battlefield) eclipses the Newtown massacre? Or how long until a foreign power or terrorist group hacks into a predator drone (technically feasible) over America and uses it as a flying bomb?  And how many more terrorist attacks against America will be fuelled by anger derived from the civilian casualties of the drone wars?

Obama might cry for Americans in Newtown, but where are his tears for the Pakistani and Yemeni children he has slaughtered? And what about for the many victims who died as a result of thousands guns shipped by the US government to the Mexican drug cartels via Fast and Furious?

The US government seem to promote the kind of policies it pretends to condemn. Drones as pointed out above (and in my previous post) is likely to become a commonplace security feature in the US which may entail the unintended consequences described above.

Yet it is hard to ignore of the possible influence of US foreign policies or the warfare state on her constituency or population. Or put differently, could the recent killing sprees signify as a policy blowback, where these assailants may have sublimely construed government's action as justifying their own? 

30,000 Drones to Patrol US Skies for Public Safety

The transition towards a police state in the US seems now in progress.

Drones will become the next airborne police surveillance vehicles in the name of “Public Safety”.

From RT.com (italic original)

Don’t be surprised if you catch a federal fleet of sneaky spy drones soaring over your head in the near future, but don’t be too terrified — it’s all in the name of public safety.

The US Department of Homeland Security is asking the makers of small unmanned aerial vehicles to submit their crafts for consideration as the agency ramps up the construction of a full-fledged surveillance state across America. The DHS plans to soon conduct drone tests over the Fort Sill, Oklahoma US Army base, and they’re already soliciting spy planes from the private sector so they can select what kind of UAV to use.

According to a request for information published on the Federal Business Opportunities website recently, the DHS is determined to begin drone tests over the military base soon and is seeking submissions from drone makers that don’t mind making a few bucks by having their products put into the US airspace to conduct sweeping surveillance.

The Borders and Maritime Security Division of the DHS “will conduct flight testing and evaluation of airborne sensors and small unmanned aerial systems,” the request reads, and now invites vendors to submit drones to be tested “under a wide variety of simulated but realistic and relevant real-world operation scenarios.”… 

The Federal Aviation Administration is working towards putting the finishing touches on rules and regulations for widespread domestic drone use, and the agency expects as many as 30,000 UAVs will be in America’s airspace by the decade’s end.

As America's founding father and principal author of the Declaration of Independence and third president of the United States Thomas Jefferson said, 

Those who desire to give up freedom in order to gain security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one

US Drone Warfare Fuels Arabic and Islamic Hatred

One of the main reasons why there has been too much vile and hatred against Americans in the Muslim world has been because of the imperialist-interventionist-militant foreign policies adapted by the US government influenced by the military industrial complex and the imperial goals of the politically entrenched neoconservatives.

One such evidence is the rampant use by the US military of drones to supposedly weed out terrorists. Such actions in reality defies the 3D policies (Development, Diplomacy and Defense), framed by Secretary of State and former first lady Hilary Clinton

As Professor Bill Easterly of the NYU in a recent blog writes,

Hilary Clinton said a while ago that Defense and Development were complements.

Not so much. A new report from Stanford and NYU (see excellent summary in the Guardian) found that US drone strikes (greatly increased under this administration) in Pakistan were killing and terrorizing civilians, while very few killed their terrorist targets.

It would be hard for Development to benefit from “drones hovering 24 hours a day over communities in northwest Pakistan, striking homes, vehicles, and public spaces without warning.”

The report alleges that drones strike areas multiple times, killing rescuers of victims of the first strike.

Such gruesome violation of human rights which masquerades as the war on terror will exacerbate geopolitical tensions instead of solving them

Yet the best way to promote peace is through trade.

As Judge Andrew Napolitano recently pointed out,

Is it not more likely that when the West supported toppling Arab strongmen, the rioters in the streets saw that as a signal to express hatred toward the meddling West? Might Obama’s drones, which have fallen all over the Middle East killing innocents in schools and hospitals, at weddings and funerals, and demolishing mosques and homes, be coming back to haunt him?

The Arab Spring has become the Western Winter, brought about by two American presidents who thought they could kill without moral justification or painful consequence. We should come home from these barbaric places and leave them alone. We should trade with them, since they want to buy our iPads and washing machines and blue jeans, but let them run their own governments.

Yet another emerging problem has been the escalating anxiety over the overbearing use of drones against Americans in their homeland—another sign of America’s transition towards a police state. These are symptoms of the growing desperation of the ruling class.

Students Hack US Drone

From RT.com, (hat tip Bastiat Institute) [Italics original]

There are a lot of cool things you can do with $1,000, but scientists at an Austin, Texas college have come across one that is often overlooked: for less than a grand, how’d you like to hijack a US government drone?

A group of researchers led by Professor Todd Humphreys from the University of Texas at Austin Radionavigation Laboratory recently succeeded in raising the eyebrows of the US government. With just around $1,000 in parts, Humphreys’ team took control of an unmanned aerial vehicle operated by the US Department of Homeland Security.

After being challenged by his lab, the DHS dared Humphreys’ crew to hack into their drone and take command. Much to their chagrin, they did exactly that.

Humphrey tells Fox News that for a few hundreds dollar his team was able to “spoof” the GPS system on board the DHS drone, a technique that involves mimicking the actual signals sent to the global positioning device and then eventually tricking the target into following a new set of commands. And, for just $1,000, Humphreys says the spoofer his team assembled was the most advanced one ever built.

“Spoofing a GPS receiver on a UAV is just another way of hijacking a plane,” Humphreys tells Fox. The real danger here, however, is that the government is currently considering plans that will allow local law enforcement agencies and other organizations from coast-to-coast to control drones of their own in America’s airspace.

“In five or ten years you have 30,000 drones in the airspace,” he tells Fox News. “Each one of these could be a potential missile used against us.”

I guess that with “30,000 drones in the airspace” encroaching on people’s privacy, drone hackers will be in big demand.