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U.S. drone strike kills 30 pine nut farm workers in Afghanistan

(www.reuters.com)
350 points tepidandroid | 2 comments | 19 Sep 19 16:51 UTC | HN request time: 0.44s | source
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whiddershins ◴[20 Sep 19 12:15 UTC] No.21025779[source]▶
I wonder why, even though we generally try to be skeptical of the news, I’m not seeing many comments here that question whether what this article is saying is even accurate.

How exactly does the reporter know which people are IS fighters? Is there some notion that militants don’t ever also farm?

Also in these comments there seems to be a huge double standard. The idea the United States might accidentally kill some civilians is somehow morally outrageous, but the regular and deliberate targeting of civilians by the Taliban and the IS as they attempt to completely destabilize the Afghan government is taken as somehow normal?

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1. zapnuk ◴[20 Sep 19 12:33 UTC] No.21025947[source]▶
The double standard come from the fact that the USA is usually held to higher standards than terror organizations.

But you are correct, killing civilians with drones isn't much different compared to other acts of terror.

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2. whiddershins ◴[20 Sep 19 12:41 UTC] No.21026016[source]▶
Acts of terror are commonly referred to in that manner because targeting civilians is the intention, with a desire to influence the population and politics.

Killing civilians accidentally is virtually guaranteed when engaging in military action.

So the tactics are extremely different in why they work, if they work at all. They are very different in the percentage of military vs civilians killed. They are very different in intention. The fact that they share some aspects in common doesn’t make them the same.