I do not know how to put it into words, but the simplistic morality expressed here makes me uncomfortable. While I also find remote controlled war to be abhorrent, nevertheless this attitude seems… overly simplistic?

Of course it is overly simplistic -- which is also why it bears repeating.

Anyone can be made to commit atrocities in an environment shaped the right way. If I grew up like these people, I'm sure I would pull the trigger in exactly the same situations.

But it still would take my cooperation. I can only pull the trigger if I'm somehow made to want it, at some level. Or at least if I'm made to think I have no choice.

By emphasising our individual ethical responsibilities -- the simple fact that it takes some amount of cooperation for a person to do anything at all, we are creating a small obstacle in the way of creating a dangerous environment that can turn me into an assassin.

Imagine a world ... imagine a united states in which people just respect this simple moral of not killing people by any means for any reason. Just imagine.

That's impossible.

I can easily imagine that we achieve world peace within 50 years through two very simple economic reforms but I can't imagine that it will actually happen.

Imagine a world where the US navy doesn’t sail all seas, where there are no US troops around the world, no NATO or Military Industrial Complex.

That’s not a world that I, as a Westerner, would want to live in.

The alternative to the US-led global order is a global order led by some Chinese-Indian-Russian alliance.

That’s definitely not a world I’d want to live in.

No one is born as your foe, they gradually become it. Fleeing into "but imagine what china would do" is exactly that, its creation.

Tracing the cirlce of violence back you can only state, that it has always been this way but that is also just a weak excuse of affective apes.

Are you assuming that literally everyone except Americans is purely reactive with no own ambitions and ideologies?

That is incredibly arrogant look at the world.

>Chinese-Indian-Russian alliance

I think hell would freeze over before those three teamed up.

Well yeah. Neither does a thief want to live in a world where they must return the goods and be held accountable. Traditionally we don't weigh their desires very heavily in those decisions.

Of course it’s overly simplistic, it’s a thoughtless impotent rant borne from frustration. I do it myself from time to time, it feels good but doesn’t change anything.

I don't want to speak for you, but it alsi makes me feel uncomfortable, but I know why.

The 'detached black and white' view of the world us how we got here in the first place.

Clinging to moral absolutes and trying to frame real life in that rigid framework is a lazy/irresponsible way to be efficient. If you don't have to worry about the details (truth), decisions seem easier.

Nobody forces you to pilot drones. It is very simple, either you do it or you don't. Given that there are other choices there are no justifications.

I'd rather clean toilets my whole life than build a career on the death of innocents.

What about artillery operators? Why are drones special?

Remember that half the population has an IQ under 100 and half of those live in places where the American Soldier is still venerated as a paragon of virtue and sacrifice. They’re not victims like the Yemeni kids they’re killing, but they are being manipulated into the situations they choose for themselves.

McNamara’s Project 100,000 did not stop at 100,000.

> Remember that half the population has an IQ under 100

It's more than half.

And I also have no sympathy for those who vote for or fund the people who allow or make these actions continue. They have as much blood on their hand and deserve the worst. Pure evil like that should not be allowed to exist free in this world.

Fisticuffs then?