By Ralph Forbes
Secret drone wars carried out by the militaries around the world have taken us to the brink of termination of all life on Earth. A recently released Department of Defense (DoD) document describing how seamlessly “capable of completely autonomous action, right down to targeting and combat” the MQ-1000 drone conducts an air-to-air engagement and “neutralizes the Tipchak” missile launched by a Russian mother ship—without any human intervention or control, demonstrates this.
The controlled media won’t tell you how close we came to blowing up the world, but you can read about it in “Unmanned Systems Integrated Roadmap, FY 2011-2036,” a 108-page peek at the neocon military-industrial- banker complex plans for our future.
Before 2001, America’s drone war was in the realm of science fiction. Only recently has it been confirmed through leaks that the Bush administration launched 47 remotely controlled strikes around the world from bases in the United States. As of 2012, Obama has launched 254 drone strikes in Pakistan alone, killing countless women and children, and multiplying America’s enemies. It is war in the shadows, with the public kept in the dark and fed constant propaganda that the U.S. military is only protecting us against dangerous enemies.
“Our drone campaigns already have virtually no transparency, accountability or oversight,” Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) and 25 other anti-war members of Congress wrote to Obama. But warmongers like Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) were not outraged by the unconstitutional, criminal acts by the president. No, they were upset he leaked the truth.
Today, according to journalist Nick Turse, the age of smart robots is upon us. At the turn of this century, the DoD had 90 drones with plans to increase the inventory by 200 over the next decade, according to Dyke Weatherington, a DoD deputy director overseeing acquisitions of hardware for unmanned warfare. As 2012 began, there were more than 9,500 remotely piloted aircraft in the U.S. arsenal.
Even more disturbing than the “Roadmap” is “IAF 2030.” Nimrod Segev, head of the Israeli Air Force’s long-term planning department, divided 300 of his top officers into nine teams to brainstorm the strategy computer’s taking over almost all the dangerous actions. They looked at the ethics of automated mass killing. If there was a war crime tribunal, can you be excused for unintended deaths if you tell the judge that “it was the
algorithm’s fault”?
Algorithms are sets of rules that are to be used for data processing or automated reasoning. However, today’s algorithms go far, far beyond simple calculations and programming that were once used to make computers work.
For example, New Scientist reports that the Chinese are developing what they call “genetic algorithms” that will be used in their pilot-less drones to teach them to “think.” According to the report: “A genetic algorithm is one that works much like natural evolution. It narrows down search results, weeding out the weaker, off-topic responses, and recombining the ‘stronger’ returned values into a better hybridized result.”
These Chinese drones, which will be used to hunt submarines, will be programmed to hunt to some degree on their own by responding and adapting to such things as changing weather patterns, fuel consumption and sonar readings.
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Ralph Forbes is a freelance writer based in Arkansas. He is also a member of AFP’s Southern Bureau. Contact him at [email protected]
