Wednesday, September 06, 2017

A Dump, a Death Sentence.



It's a strange old world where the people inflicting the butchery claim some moral high ground to deflect the blame on someone else. We would never do that, right?

Such is the case right now in the desert of Syria. The butchery is American. The Americans, however, unconvincingly blame Assad.

It involves a column of vehicles carrying ISIS fighters, their wives and children, away from the fighting and back to ISIS' territory along the Iraqi borders.  American drones have the convoy stopped and they're openly picking off anyone who tries to flee on foot, even anyone who steps just far enough from the group to relieve him/herself.

Eleven buses filled with Islamic State fighters and their families have been stalled in the desert for the past 72 hours, occasionally being resupplied by trucks coming from Syrian regime-controlled territory, U.S. defense officials say. American aircraft buzzing overhead are blocking them from reaching an Islamic State stronghold in Deir Ezzor, and so far they appear unwilling to head back to Syrian-controlled territory.

But any attempts at resupply coming from the east — areas under Islamic State control — are being taken out by U.S. aircraft following the convoy.

At least 40 vehicles have been hit by U.S. airstrikes in recent days, and American planes have been picking off Islamic State fighters by ones and twos, Col. Ryan Dillon, a spokesman for the U.S. military command in Baghdad, told Foreign Policy.

During the most recent round of strikes Tuesday evening, U.S. aircraft struck fighters who got too far away from the buses. “Whether it’s to evade by foot or to relieve themselves, if they make it far enough out there for us to strike, then we will,” Dillon said.


I don't know but, from what I've read or watched in documentaries, being left in a desert is a pretty gruesome but certain way to die.  I've also heard that some folks might want to put 20 or 30 yards distance between themselves and their friends and family when they absolutely must relieve themselves.  For that audacious act of those you have essentially incarcerated in the desert to be a legitimate cause for extermination, we have stepped into a new social reality and we need to realize there are serious issues we have to decide on our own because our government ignores them.

Read the entire FP report. There's no end of stuff I've left out like how our anti-ISIS pals granted them safe passage to get them to surrender what they were holding. The took the deal, got into their buses, headed out of town into the desert where they were ambushed by American drones. They're still there. It's all Assad's fault.



3 comments:

Northern PoV said...

Ban all drones now.
Perhaps a few camera drones should be licensed to rescue teams but why allow and support a technology that will allow misfits (state actors and individuals) to create havoc. Its not like we really need drones as a society.

The US drone offensives will create blow back (likely employing drones at some point) making 9/11 seem quaint.

Dana said...

Oh please. Yeah, that'll happen in some moral universe somewhere.

Who's buying USD and US Government bonds now? Whoever it is should be outed and shamed.

Toby said...

Controlled from a distance, a drone is the ultimate in artillery hardware. The operator doesn't need to get his/her hands dirty, doesn't need to face his enemy, doesn't even need to leave home. His/her risk is almost nil. It looks like the ultimate toy for kids raised on violent computer games.