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    Around the World

    ‘Joystick Warfare’: The Drone Dilemma

    On Wednesday November 30th an unmanned United States military drone went down over Iranian airspace, about 140 miles from the border of Afghanistan. The fallen drone, packed with guarded US military secrets, highlights the Obama administrations growing reliance on unmanned aircraft to fight its wars.

    Unmanned drones have been a signature of the United States fight against terrorism; according to the Washington Post, U.S. drone strikes have killed twice as many suspected Al-Qaeda and Taliban members than were ever imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay. President Obama has found them particularly useful, authorizing more drone strikes in the first nine months in office than President George W. Bush did in his final three years in office.

    If the recovered drone is in good shape it could provide Iran, and their allies including China and Russia, with highly guarded US military secrets, causing a fair amount of anxiety in Washington.

    However, pursuing the enemy while keeping soldiers off the battle field is not a new strategy. The practice began in the 1940's when the U.S. started using unmanned rockets, and has evolved to the point where military drones are an integral part of any modern arsenal.

    The United States has flown over 300 drone missions as of October of 2011, and while they're a crucial tool in modern warfare, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism believed they are to blame for hundreds of civilian casualties; a number the Pentagon denies.

    Looking forward, what's the future of this joystick warfare, and is it legal? On Around the World, Christiane Amanpour is joined by Peter Singer, senior fellow at the Brookings Institute and author of Wired for War to talk about the future of drones.

     
     
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    1,733 comments

    • rad  •  4 mths ago
      The drones are obsolete! Since China years ago put down their satellite with such a good precision everything based on satellite support is obsolete!
      Who knows by now someone invented a satellite sweeper or how to obliterate them!
      Back to the drafting board for everybody!
    • Schoolboy  •  5 mths ago
      they don't come with a self destruct mechanism and some sort of fail safe device like if no contact or direction from base within a certain period of time it will self destruct automatically?
      • twistedchild 5 mths ago
        Another system that can fail and if it fails when parked in a friendly hangar...
    • x  •  Miami, United States  •  5 mths ago
      Now our people will have to invent counter measures on the drone.
      That is highly likely ,since our guys built it to begin with.
      Get to work people and make this thing obsolete.
    • Mark  •  Elmhurst, United States  •  5 mths ago
      Holy crap, once that guy started talking I was ready for bed, again. Bored me to hell in just 45 seconds. I had to pause it, I couldn't listen to him anymore.In fact I'm just going to close the page.
      • The King 5 mths ago
        before you left i wish you had told me the name of that guy that was talking or is it a secret
      • x-files 5 mths ago
        That's no man, ,that's just Christiane Amanpour .............but I can easily see how you would think she is a dude.
      • Marques 5 mths ago
        First of all I want to say Desert Fox is Correct. And Im black myself, you white people have twisted arterio motives that blacks dont understand every since slavery, a.k.a kidnapping and human trafficking. So I was listening in on this because during the days before the 9/11 anniversary they would show all the clippings and the movies. Why is it they only show the plane that went down in the farmers field flight 93 that had people on it, or they played they calls from the 911 calls made by people in the world trade, nothing was captured from either planes that went into the world trade centers. even when the airpot towers were trying to get a response from the plane guess what, there were no responses, the only response they got was the flight 93. Now you tell me, those planes were occupied. Well to prove this theory, the guy says, " A man based out of Boston, was inspired by Al quaida to fill a drone with explosives and fly it into the pentagon" (Singer 2011). Now It was said and known to the world that the "taliban HIJACKED" I REPEAT, the TALIBAN FROM IRAQ HIJACKED THOSE PLANES THAT WENT INTO THE WORLD TRADE CENTERS, THERE WAS NO DRONES INVOLVED TO INSIPRED NOBODY TO USE THEM AS SUCH, WHO WOULD SERIOUSLY GOT THAT IDEA FROM SOMEONE WHO DIDNT USE THAT IDEA OR WERE THEY DRONES BY THE U.S. GOVERNMENT AND THEY FOUND OUT THAT THIS GUY KNEW TOO MUCH OF THIS TECHNOLOGY AND WAS GOING TO EXPOSED THE DIRTY TRUTH OF 9/11, ITS FUNNY HOW PETER SAID IT WAS A COUPLE OF WEEKS AGO A MAN OUT OF BOSTON WAS INSPIRED BY AL-QUAIDA AND THEY FOUND OUT BEFORE IT COULD HAPPEN, WOW, THEY KNEW ABOUT SO CALLED 9/11 ATTACK BACK IN 1990 AND NOW THEY WANT TO BLAME THE INSPIRATION ON AL-QUAIDA AND THEY WASNT THE ONES WHO ACCUSED OF IT? TO ME I KNOW THOSE PLANES WERE NOT OCCUPIED AT ALL DUE TO THE EVIDENCE OF THE MEDIA AND DRONE TECHNOLOGICAL WARFARE", IT WAS NOT "AL-Quaida" OR the taliban THAT was lead by Osama bin laden and the Al-quaida is lead by somebody else that is somehow still alive. But THIS THEORY IS PROBABLY THE BEST OF ALL THEORIES. JUST LISTEN TO WHAT THE GUY SAID ABOUT THIS TEHNOLOGY, WHO HAS IT AND WHO BEEN HAD IT FROM THE VERY FIRST DRONE EVERY MADE. "U.S GOV'T DRONES KNOCKED DOWN THE WORLD TRADE CENTERS, NOT PAKISTANIANS OR IRAQIANS OR IRANIANS", THIS WAS A COMPLETE SET UP BY OUR OWN DEMENTED GOV'T.
    • An American  •  Lake Mary, United States  •  5 mths ago
      The Bureau of Investigative Journalism? Who is the editor in chief Michael Moore?
      This is just another bull sheet liberal slant piece. I would rather we lose 100 drones rather than 1 more American fighting man or woman. Joy stick warfare works for me, the object of the game is to kill the bad guy and keep our folks out of harms way.
      • Paul 5 mths ago
        those retards should have inserted self-destruct mechanism in redundancy.
      • Zachery 5 mths ago
        Why is this a liberal slant piece? I'm all for the drones.
      • somethin' else 5 mths ago
        I believe he means mainstream liberal politicians. Not to say that republican politicians or Independent politicians are any better.
    • Shorecorruption  •  Bricktown, United States  •  5 mths ago
      They should sell a kit. You could fly from home and make extra money like on tv
      • Ralph D 5 mths ago
        Probably a sizable investment required , lol
      • Justice 5 mths ago
        It seems that you think that all of this is funny while American Service men and women are dying in Afganistan. Grow up. Better yet, join the Marines and go there yourself.
      • IreneH 5 mths ago
        American service men and women in this day and age are all volunteers. If they knew the history of U.S. intervention in foreign countries for the benefit of large corporations perhaps they would have known better than to volunteer.
    • Kukla  •  5 mths ago
      How terribly embarrassing...would'nt they be able to detect a drone being intercepted or going done to fall into enemy hands without a self destruct of hardware and software onboard?????
    • SatelliteSteve  •  5 mths ago
      I go along with Tellu L (below). I'll bet Iran had every keystroke but the ones to put the landing gear down.
    • jimmie t  •  Albuquerque, United States  •  5 mths ago
      why are we aiding again when they were in the #1 they were buying our homes bussiness etc and still own them when are we going to help ourselfs
    • melt  •  Minneapolis, United States  •  5 mths ago
      why no self destruct button ???
    • JFK  •  Tampa, United States  •  5 mths ago
      LET ME HELP YOU OUT here. The solution is very simple. install Self distruct ability on the craft to the most guarded areas of components. Then activate self distruct by two means. By command, or by the onboard computer when it has detected the craft is hopelessly out of control or going to crash. How hard was that?
      • UJ 5 mths ago
        You're right. I kept waiting to read that that is what they did, but it hasn't said anything about that.
      • diehardbirdsfan 5 mths ago
        Wow you are brilliant. What a great idea!! NASA please contact this man for immediate hire. [this is sarcasm if your brilliance didn't figure it out]
      • Nikki 5 mths ago
        But when it is shot down, it renders all these self-destruction capabilities useless... You can only assume self-destruction would work if it is intact. It's like when you are in a coma, can you still commit suicide? Get it?
    • james  •  Makati City, Philippines  •  5 mths ago
      let's use these things to fight against abu sayaf
    • Iphone6  •  5 mths ago
      Amanpour is an iranian with british passport. She is more incllined to believe that the plane was shot down like what the iranians claim. Sorry but this report means nothing to me.
    • Rick  •  5 mths ago
      WHY WAS IT THERE TO BEGIN WITH???
    • ABC123  •  Boise, United States  •  5 mths ago
      this is most likely nothing more than a ploy to checkout the radar installations and where they might be. after all, the radar is the first place you go for before sending in the bombers.
    • George  •  5 mths ago
      ❤DRONES❤
    • tellu l  •  Brest, France  •  5 mths ago
      I'm guessing that people have already forgotten that the militarys computer systems were recently hacked and a virus was detected that copied keystrokes on drone systems? Could it be that the drone was taken instead of crashing?
    • Donna  •  Dallas, United States  •  5 mths ago
      why be in their air space? are they in ours?
    • roberto  •  Los Angeles, United States  •  5 mths ago
      Yeah rigth, iranians shot it down but is intact, it looks like treason to me, some body deliver it to them as a gift from obama drama. he is trying to show the enemy that they can trust him, muslims are wasting their time killing a few soilders with bombs, they have their best friend doing a better job from the white house in destroying this great country.
    • Mc  •  5 mths ago
      china and russia are iran's allies ?
      drone diplomacy - something just does not smell right .

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