Air strike kills 15 Civilians

[AllPurposeAtheist]

Frosty, you're debasing the great Satan, NSA and CIA  narrative. It's almost as if middle eastern countries might harm their own people without nefarious US plots. :shock: :)

[Thumpalumpacus]

It was an "apparent drone strike".

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/201 ... killing-15

I think it would be far-fetched to assume it was anything other than a US military drone strike, though.

I'm not assuming it was anything at all.  I'm looking for facts.

The local officials would have a pretty strong motivation to distance themselves from such a tragedy, and who better to blame than the US?  It's said that it was apparent to them that it was a drone-strike, but no article linked so far explains the basis for that assessment.

Of course, it's easy to assume American guilt, because we have used drone strikes. But that doesn't mean that this is one, too.

Sloppy thinking is unacceptable no matter whose ox is gored, I reckon.

[Solitary]

I'm wondering why on this site many here would just as soon see most of the muslim world eradicated should in any way be shocked at 15 being killed.
While I don't really share that view I've seen it expressed here many times so it's ok to eradicate all muslims and all religion for that matter, let's do it the old fashioned way? Let's bomb them with old style aircraft? This site makes me wonder sometimes. :-k

I for one don't want Muslims, Christians, or any other religious people killed, only the ones that are terrorists, but I would like all religious beliefs eradicated from the earth that are based on superstitious nonsense and magical thinking that produces terrorists. I'm shocked because they were supposed to have been civilians and not terrorists. I haven't seen anyone here that wants to extirpate all religious people, only the source of terrorism from superstitious nonsense and magical thinking. If I'm wrong show me the posts that express that! Solitary

[Smartmarzipan]

It was an "apparent drone strike".

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/201 ... killing-15

I think it would be far-fetched to assume it was anything other than a US military drone strike, though.

I'm not assuming it was anything at all.  I'm looking for facts.

The local officials would have a pretty strong motivation to distance themselves from such a tragedy, and who better to blame than the US?  It's said that it was apparent to them that it was a drone-strike, but no article linked so far explains the basis for that assessment.

Of course, it's easy to assume American guilt, because we have used drone strikes. But that doesn't mean that this is one, too.

Sloppy thinking is unacceptable no matter whose ox is gored, I reckon.

Fair enough.

[SGOS]

It seems like these collateral damage mistakes usually manage to wipe out wedding parties.  Is there something about a wedding party that has the appearance of being nefarious?  We never hear about accidentally killing a guy who was stealing a TV.  It's always a wedding party.

[mykcob4]

It seems like these collateral damage mistakes usually manage to wipe out wedding parties.  Is there something about a wedding party that has the appearance of being nefarious?  We never hear about accidentally killing a guy who was stealing a TV.  It's always a wedding party.

Yes as a matter of fact. Funeral and wedding parties are used as cover for AQ and terrorist weapons movements and the movements of ranking officials. They know that an attack on them is political suicide. That is not an excuse for killing innocents, by mistake or as collateral damage. Other methods need to be utilized that are more effective.
The problem is intelligence. "W" virtually wiped out foriegn operatives leaving the US blind in many Middle Eastern Nations. That is a huge problem. Rebuilding that network will take decades to repair. Relying on Musad and other intelligent groups is okay IF you have a reliable method for verification. We don't have that capability.
So the NSA, CIA or one of our intelligent org.s gets info  from a second party that a terrorist group is moving. We attempt to track that movement via satelite or drone (because we don't have an operative on the ground, let alone boots that can provide firsthand knowledge). Some ranking official (theatre command) makes the call to strike and the next thing you know innocent civilians are killed en masse. There is no communication with Yemen because they virtually don't have a government. The Yemenni desert is the wildwest with nothing but isolated tribes. The only place Yemen has a government is the few urban areas and that government is limited and fractured. In some cases the local police chief wields more power than Ali Abdullah Saleh.