If a drone ever kills a U.S. government official on American soil, the news will call it unprecedented.

[jalefkowit@vmst.io]

If a drone ever kills a U.S. government official on American soil, the news will call it unprecedented. But it will not be unprecedented. We have been precedenting it in other countries for 20 years now

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/03/18/hegseth-rubio-drone-targeting-iran/

#USPol

[sysadmin1138@ngmx.com]

@jalefkowit I mean, what is a cruise-missile but a drone with a rocket motor.

[clarkiestar@mas.to]

@jalefkowit yes, but it only counts when it happens to Americans, it seems

[jalefkowit@vmst.io]

@clarkiestar Welcome to America

[jalefkowit@vmst.io]

Here's me on the drone wars, ten years ago. (When Barack Obama was still the president.)

The real price of our secret wars - Just Well Mixed

It's moral debt. And someday, some generation of Americans will be called upon to pay it off

Just Well Mixed (jasonlefkowitz.net)

[jalefkowit@vmst.io]

(At this point I mostly keep my old blog around for "I told you so" purposes)

[requiem@masto.hackers.town]

@jalefkowit can I suggest "delicious" as a replacement?

[glyph@mastodon.social]

@jalefkowit it's fucking wild that "maybe endless, undeclared, secret war is bad, actually" was a bold and unpopular take back then. you nailed it, of course, but it continues to be depressing that this wasn't generally obvious

[emma@orbital.horse]

@sysadmin1138 @jalefkowit and that motor is only to get it clear of the launcher and up to speed for the turbine to take over.

[mjibrower@mastodon.social]

@jalefkowit imo that’s a really great reason to keep a blog.

[ruby@toot.cat]

Same! And sometimes I still post to it for the same reason.

[carpetbomberz@mastodon.online]

@jalefkowit

I watched "citizenfour" and the BIG reveal at the end, teh last line of that film was, there were, 1 million people on the Obama kill/capture list (and at the time we were sooooo hot for UAV Hellfire drone strikes, that's all they did for 8 years in Iraq and Afghanistan). Can you imagine 1M people on a list, where you attempt to get any kinds of human intelligence, signals intelligence, anything, social graph, doctors records, cell phone IMEI numbers. All just to add to a queue.

[wordshaper@weatherishappening.network]

@jalefkowit Spite and Righteous Indignation are two phenomenal motivations for doing anything.

[apbblue@thepit.social]

@jalefkowit This base is like five blocks from my house.