The comment that you quoted is missing the point a little bit. We are talking about using AI to power weapons. That is uncharted territory and a decision that should be taken lightly and be done behind closed doors.

You have to understand that many people both at HN and at Google are not Americans. The United States is founded on great democratic values, but in the past sometimes failed to uphold them in relationship to other countries (dropping an atomic bomb on Japan, the wars in Vietnam and Iraq, torturing in Guantanamo and the NSA's prism program which directly affected Google).