I guess we have unlimited funds?

[SHRED]

Well we must have more than enough to be the world's police for private interests.
Your tax dollars at work protecting corporate interests:

---

US sends drones to monitor east African pirates
Oct 23 11:13 AM US/Eastern


NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) - U.S. military surveillance drones based in the Seychelles islands are patrolling off Somalia's coast in hopes of stemming a rising piracy trade.

Pirates have unleashed a wave of attacks in recent days as the new pirate season begins. Monsoons kept pirates off the water in recent months.

The bandits seized three ships in the last 10 days, and officials say attacks will rise.

U.S. military officials say unmanned drones called Reapers are patrolling the Indian Ocean. Small drones were previously launched from American warships off Somalia but the larger and more advanced Reapers are the first drones to be operated in the area by the U.S. military's Africa Command.

Vice Adm. Robert Moeller, deputy commander of Germany-based Africom, says pirates remain "a pretty significant challenge."

Somalia has been ravaged by violence and anarchy since 1991 and piracy has flourished off its coast.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9BGSG800&show_article=1

---

[Roland99]

1. a "new" pirate season? Why, I thought it was

duck season!

[unhappycamper]

2. Yup. Money is no object.

Some bone-headed think tank declared this week that we need to cut military retirement to buy more guns n stuff. Then of course there was a story that the guys who blow up IEDs in Afghanistan don't have enough C-4 to blow everything up properly.

[unhappycamper]

11. BTW, a MQ-9 Reaper costs around $8 million a pop.

http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Commentary_Raptor_is_no_Reaper_999.html

[ThomWV]

3. I consider this a legitimate use of our military forces

However the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are not.

[notesdev]

5. Yep one of the few actually authorized by the Constitution n/t

[SHRED]

6. Can you direct me to...

...the section that says that it is our duty to go halfway around the world to protect multinational corporate interests?

[notesdev]

7. Right here

http://constitution.org/constit_.htm#con1.8

Article 1, Section 8:

To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offences against the Law of Nations;

To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;

To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;

To provide and maintain a Navy;


(I included the intermediary line about the armies for context and to point out why hunting pirates is authorized but endless overseas deployments are not)

[SHRED]

8. Oh...I thought the Constitution...

...was intended and written as a National document intended for the protection off our waters and not an international oceanic rulebook for protecting foreign corporate interests.

My bad.
:sarcasm:

[notesdev]

9. Sorry to disappoint you

but keeping the sea lanes safe for trade is one of those fundamental duties of our government, and was actually our very first use of military force (War against the Barbary Pirates, 1802) which took us not far from that part of the world for the same purpose. (The "Shores of Tripoli" line in the Marine hymn comes from this action.)

There's a ton of shit this government is wasting money on where it has no business or authority to do so (TARP, anyone? Nation-building? "stimulus"?), so if you are of a mood to complain about wasted money - as I very often am - I would pick one of those.

[SHRED]

10. Yeah...

...it's a good thing the drone program is so inexpensive!

:toast:

[Orrex]

4. NPR's "Fresh Air" ran a program about UAVs last week

I found two points to be especially interesting:

1. The pilots of UAVs work from cubicles in Nevada and elsewhere, launching lethal attacks from thousands of miles away. And in spite of this seemingly sterile, protected arrangement, the pilots actually suffer intense PTSD, sometimes worse than men and women who physically engage in combat.

2. UAVs and "targeted strikes" were illegal prior to 9/11, because they were considered assassinations. The US even criticized Israel's "targeted strikes" when used against particular suspected terrorists. But after "the day that changed everything," anti-US terrorists were reclassified "enemy combatants in a world-wide war," so all bets were off. The thinking was that terrorists were "okay" to attack in this fashion. But even this dubiously broad mandate has been broadened to include suspected drug lords and (now) "pirates."

Congress loves UAVs because they're the new technology du jour and because they nominally protect American troops by keeping them out of direct combat. However, the legality and morality of the weapon system is hardly as clearly resolved as the Pentagon and Congress would like it to be.

[msongs]

12. for war, yes, unlimited funds. for corporate welfare, yes, the sky is the limit. nt