Automatons Now Will Fight Our Wars

And why not? We’ve got one for President. A New York Times article this morning by Tim Wiener, “A New Model Army Soldier Rolls Closer to the Battlefield”, lays out the plans of the robotics division at the Joint Forces Command research center in Suffolk, VA. They’re hot to trot re robots. In fact, we’re told, robots are already being used in Iraq to locate and dig up land mines. Not only that, Wiener reported that Bart Everett, the technical director for robotics at the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center in San Diego said, "This is the first time they've (the soldiers in Iraq) said, 'I want a robot,' because they're going to get killed without it." See how the groundwork is being laid? Our soldiers want robots. Next we get a quote from Gordon Johnson at the Joint Forces Command research center in Suffolk. “The lawyers tell me there are no prohibitions against robots making life-or-death decisions. I have been asked what happens if the robot destroys a school bus rather than a tank parked nearby. We will not entrust a robot with that decision until we are confident they can make it." So those trustworthy Pentagon lawyers say there are no prohibitions against robots making life and death decisions. And never fear anyway, those Pentagon lawyers with their high moral values and ethical monitors implanted in their brains would never entrust a decision to a robot that the robot couldn’t handle. Well then, Mr. Highly Ethical Pentagon lawyer, sir, how do you account for the fact that we have a robot for President who can’t handle press conferences about privatizing Social Security, and yet he’s been entrusted with making life-and-death decisions? Answer me that. No answer? Okay. Moving along...Gordon Johnson amplified his pro-robot opinion, saying, “They don't get hungry, they're not afraid. They don't forget their orders. They don't care if the guy next to them has just been shot. Will they do a better job than humans? Yes." The robot soldier is coming, Wiener says. And he’s four feet high, has a Cyclops eye and a gun for a right arm. As we speak he’s honing his dead-eye skills on a Pepsi can in Suffolk, VA. Or as Wiener says, he’s “performing the basic tasks of hunting and killing”. "It's the first robot that I know of that can find targets and shoot them," technical director Bart Everett said. So what’s the bottom line? Designing, perfecting and building robots will drive the defense budget up from $419.3 billion for next year to $502.3 billion in 2010, not including the costs of war. You think the Carlyle Group with its investments in war, weapons of destruction and mayhem is not dancing around the campfire over these plans? The Pentagon has been dreaming of being able to invade countries and subdue the inhabitants with nary a loss of US life for over 30 years. How close are the fascists and warmongers in the White House to realizing that nightmare? Tim Wiener says, “By April, an armed version of the bomb-disposal robot will be in Baghdad, capable of firing 1,000 rounds a minute. Though controlled by a soldier with a laptop, the robot will be the first thinking machine of its kind to take up a front-line infantry position, ready to kill enemies.” So...we’ve got our robots, we’re stepping up our production of nuclear arms, armaments, warheads and bombs...we’re ready to take on the world by force and now we won’t shed any American blood. What’s to stop us? Absolutely nothing. Plus...our robot Prez loves the smell of plutonium in the morning.