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Comment by cdooh | Hacker News Reader

Not too shocking. I'm sure this is too much of a generalisation but Anericans don't like to know of the atrocities done in their name as long as their "catching the bad guys". The global war on terror has you making enemies of people who would otherwise leave you alone...

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> I'm sure this is too much of a generalisation but Anericans don't like to know of the atrocities done in their name as long as their "catching the bad guys"

I think it is worse than that. I think that they either don't care, or perhaps even support it as long as it isn't too close to home for them. See the treatment of torture on American television shows like 24 or Fringe (related discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7017222).

Well I don't know, I doubt they care how close to home it is, provided they still get paid. The purest cynicism I ever did see was in response to the drone attacks on funerals. People cried "you're creating more terrorists". The cynics replied, "That's actually the point". A self perpetuating war machine. There are people out there that have this as their goal.

No corporation gets to count "peace" on their balance sheet, but man those bullets pile up on the bottom line.

I remember that discussion. When these wars "come home" then there'll be cries to stop the torture.

I think that will likely depend on how effective the government and media is at "othering" the targets of the governments aggression. An important part of any related propaganda would be ensuring that the bulk of Americans do not feel like they have any relationship with the victims, even though they both live in the same country.

JSOC running around killing almost maybe "bad guys" based on whom knows what evidence and also their own citizens now and then without a trial is disgusting. In retrospect, history may well judge Obama administration on par with the Salem witch trials for repugnant lack of morality. Who knows.

Also, the Metadata app on iOS puts drone strikes on a map. There are many in Yemen and Somalia, not just the Middle East proper. http://mashable.com/2014/02/07/apple-app-tracks-drone-strike...

I'm from Kenya and right now we've invaded Somilia in hopes of getting things, by that we mean Al Shabaab, under control. What worries me is that we're not as powerful or advanced as the US when/if they decided to attack us proper we're fucked.

Military adventurism, no matter the banner or origin, creates pernicious deferred blow-back.

When the rebels bring flying robotic IEDS to whomever they decide to target today, the shit is gonna be instantly way more complicated.

I'd say Westgate was a proper attack, no?

I mean a birage of attacks

We don't need them to leave us alone. We need them to not threaten the regimes that sell us oil. We also need to keep them from creating a competitor to western culture.

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