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Why Was No One Punished for America's "My Lai" in Iraq?
http://www.alternet.org/world/154087/why_was_no_one_punished_for_america%27s_%22my_lai%22_in_iraq/The plea bargain in the last Haditha massacre case handed down in January is a fitting end to the Iraq war. In the most notorious case of U.S. culpability in Iraqi civilian deaths, no one will pay a price. And that is emblematic of the entire war and its hundreds of thousands of dead and millions displaced.
Sergeant Frank Wuterich, the squad leader who encouraged and led his marines to kill 24 civilians in the Iraqi town of Haditha in November 2005, was the last of eight originally charged in the massacre. The others were let off on technicalities, or to help the prosecution. One officer, not involved in the killing but the coverup, was acquitted in a military trial.
The responsibility for these killings came down to Wuterich’s role, but he never actually went through a full trial. The military prosecutor opted for the slap-on-the-wrist of demotion to private for the 24 civilian deaths. Wuterich, who admitted to much more in a “60 Minutes” interview in 2007—including rolling grenades into a house filled with civilians without attempting to make an identification—copped only to “dereliction of duty.”
The episode was often compared with the My Lai massacre in Vietnam, in which some 400 civilians were executed by Lieutenant William Calley and some of his army unit in 1967. While the scale and circumstances are quite different, they do bear one striking similarity, and that is the reaction of officials and the American public alike.
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http://www.theverge.com/2012/1/26/2741314/x47b-autonomous-military-drone-accountibility-ethical-questions
Autonomous military drone raises accountability questions
Remote-controlled drones are already a controversial part of US military strategy, but an experimental Navy aircraft that pilots itself could make the ethical issues http://www.theverge.com/culture/2011/12/17/2643013/robot-war-ethics-cia-in-q-tel-drone they raise seem downright pedestrian. The Northrop Grumman X-47B is a robotic plane designed to be able to refuel, make difficult takeoffs and landings, and follow a flight plan without outside direction. After making its first flight last February, the plane has undergone more testing and development — it's set to make its first landing on an aircraft carrier in 2013, and to demonstrate refueling by 2014.
As astonishing as a self-flying plane is, however, the idea of a self-directed, weaponized plane doesn't sit will with many people. Although the Navy says it has no plans to arm the X-47B, and deployment could be over a decade away, the plane has a weapons bay capable of carrying 4,500 pounds, and further iterations would very likely end up being used in combat. Robotics expert Noel Sharky says that it would be extremely difficult to determine a clear chain of accountability with a robotic weapon, and the International Committee of the Red Cross is already looking into how autonomous weapons might be able to comply with humanitarian law. For now, the rest of us will be sticking with our distinctly non-weaponized self-driving cars. http://www.theverge.com/2012/1/23/2725459/building-tomorrows-car-today-self-driving-vehicle-mainstream
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http://articles.latimes.com/2012/jan/26/business/la-fi-auto-drone-20120126
New drone has no pilot anywhere, so who's accountable?
The Navy is testing an autonomous plane that will land on an aircraft carrier. The prospect of heavily armed aircraft screaming through the skies without direct human control is unnerving to many.
The Navy's new drone being tested near Chesapeake Bay stretches the boundaries of technology: It's designed to land on the deck of an aircraft carrier, one of aviation's most difficult maneuvers.
What's even more remarkable is that it will do that not only without a pilot in the cockpit, but without a pilot at all.
The X-47B marks a paradigm shift in warfare, one that is likely to have far-reaching consequences. With the drone's ability to be flown autonomously by onboard computers, it could usher in an era when death and destruction can be dealt by machines operating semi-independently.
snip
Autonomous military drone raises accountability questions
Remote-controlled drones are already a controversial part of US military strategy, but an experimental Navy aircraft that pilots itself could make the ethical issues http://www.theverge.com/culture/2011/12/17/2643013/robot-war-ethics-cia-in-q-tel-drone they raise seem downright pedestrian. The Northrop Grumman X-47B is a robotic plane designed to be able to refuel, make difficult takeoffs and landings, and follow a flight plan without outside direction. After making its first flight last February, the plane has undergone more testing and development — it's set to make its first landing on an aircraft carrier in 2013, and to demonstrate refueling by 2014.
As astonishing as a self-flying plane is, however, the idea of a self-directed, weaponized plane doesn't sit will with many people. Although the Navy says it has no plans to arm the X-47B, and deployment could be over a decade away, the plane has a weapons bay capable of carrying 4,500 pounds, and further iterations would very likely end up being used in combat. Robotics expert Noel Sharky says that it would be extremely difficult to determine a clear chain of accountability with a robotic weapon, and the International Committee of the Red Cross is already looking into how autonomous weapons might be able to comply with humanitarian law. For now, the rest of us will be sticking with our distinctly non-weaponized self-driving cars. http://www.theverge.com/2012/1/23/2725459/building-tomorrows-car-today-self-driving-vehicle-mainstream
snip
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http://articles.latimes.com/2012/jan/26/business/la-fi-auto-drone-20120126
New drone has no pilot anywhere, so who's accountable?
The Navy is testing an autonomous plane that will land on an aircraft carrier. The prospect of heavily armed aircraft screaming through the skies without direct human control is unnerving to many.
The Navy's new drone being tested near Chesapeake Bay stretches the boundaries of technology: It's designed to land on the deck of an aircraft carrier, one of aviation's most difficult maneuvers.
What's even more remarkable is that it will do that not only without a pilot in the cockpit, but without a pilot at all.
The X-47B marks a paradigm shift in warfare, one that is likely to have far-reaching consequences. With the drone's ability to be flown autonomously by onboard computers, it could usher in an era when death and destruction can be dealt by machines operating semi-independently.
snip
