The end result of your stance is essentially arguing that the only problem with American intervention in the Middle East is that it isn't efficient enough.

My point was, the subject at hand isn't really necessarily about what is happening with DoD, and if anything would more likely be reduced harm.

I'm not a proponent of our foreign engagements at all... however, this isn't the place where such a line should be drawn. I find that anywhere the government can more effectively reduce costs and/or improve it infrastructure should generally be preferred.

Did you miss the part where I specifically said, "Personally, I do think our foreign deployments and presence should absolutely be dramatically reduced."

I didn't, I was trying to point out that the unintended and inevitable outcome of making war cheaper to wage (either in dollars or lives of your own soldiers) is more war.

As if cost is actually a deterrent for war...

It certainly is, compare Vietnam to Iraq. If LBJ and Nixon had predator drones we never would have left.

The only difference is drone operators don't speak out publicly at the same rate when they get home as boots on the ground who saw the carnage more directly and personally back then.

Do you have a source for that quote about dropped ordnance? I’d be very surprised if he beat out the strategic bombing and artillery shelling of WW2.

Here's an article with stats from 2015 and 2016... I spent a few minutes trying to find an article I recall from around 2014 or so, but unable to find it. There's a lot of information out there, and the number of drone strikes are incredibly large. I think the record under Trump has been roughly the same, but it's a dramatic change over before Obama. The kiloton size may or may not be smaller. More targeted drone/missile strikes vs bombs. But I believe the number of drops is much larger.

Frankly, I'd love to see most of our foreign deployments dramatically scaled back. I just don't think the mentality that nobody should provide any kind of technical services to the government would only make things worse, not better overall, and that specific criticisms shouldn't be part of decisions of infrastructure use.

https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/artic...

That article seems to imply in the 10s of thousands per year, which is certainly a lot of airstrikes. US and Britain dropped something like 3 million tons of bombs during the strategic bombing of WW2, though. IIRC the 500 pound bomb was the most common.

And then there’s tens of millions of artillery shells, if you’re counting all ordnance.

Vietnam war had a huge amount of bombing too, with cluster bombs and the like.

I’d be a bit surprised if Obama made the top 5, but maybe.

How is Obama relevant, here? I don't believe I mentioned him. HN has always leaned libertarian, and just because Ron Paul isn't running right now doesn't mean suddenly every argument that's against authoritarianism is liberal.

The point was that drone strikes / bombings were dramatically increased under Obama and never really stopped. I also noted that it didn't decrease with Trump.

In either case, offering cloud services to the Government isn't really an authoritarian position.