Christopher Lee writes from London: Everyone knows about the US drones whacking the Taliban – or that’s how the Americans tell it. In the UK, the general attitude is: good on you Yanks. Blow away as many Taliban as your cowboys in Nevada Predator Control can spot.Read the whole thing...and I'm not sure about the website but it makes you wonder doesn't it?
It’s great stuff because no one gets killed except terrorists and a few civilians. Also, the military anoraks say this is the future as well as Now Warfare. It’s technology challenging the guy with the turban and bomb-lined waistcoat. If a few Human Rights Watch campaigners complain that a bunch of families got in the way, then that’s too bad. They shouldn’t hang out with the bad guys.
Anyway, not many dead and we never met any of them. End of US media briefing. British Media break into applause
What people in the UK don’t know is that the British have their own drones and they’re doing quite a bit of their own killing – including civilians. The RAF is operating Reaper drones and guiding them to targets – or as close as doesn’t seem to matter to the RAF – from a US military facility in Nevada.
How many drone strikes have the Brits made and the US took the credit/blame for it? Oh and only a fool would believe that the Brits aren't making cross border drone raids into Pakistan.
The difference? The Brits know how to maintain operational security and we seem to have forgotten.
SIDENOTE:
This has been staring everyone in the face but to my knowledge no one (before this article) put it together. And the reason why we missed it is because they haven't been broadcasting the capability all over the place. Not only is the upper lip stiff but the mouth is closed. Bully for them.
there been some documentries on the posting of our raf guys over the pond flying drones for missions in afganistan etc, but your right never really thought about the blame game thing, or credit thing really.
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