Bread, re: "Is your response the same if you are in the VN highlands and the VC are across the border in Cambodia/Laos and we have drone technology?"
First, the NVA were across the border and we didn't target individuals, we targeted enemy soldiers. In the central highlands we had choppers gunned up with door gunners ready to shoot anything that moved that wasn't wearing a GI uniform. The difference between that and the use of a drone was that the decision to shoot was made on the site and the door gunner and pilot making the decisions were at risk. As opposed to the "war" on terror, that was a war with real soldiers, not civilian terrorists, and the kills were military targets not assassinations based on kill lists created in secret by unknown people wielding life and death power with a pen.
Second, are you talking about shooting into crowds of Cambodian civilians in order to kill NVA?
Third, we didn't go into Cambodia en masse until 1970 and then we got right back out. Why? Because even though invading Cambodia was effective in reducing the ability of the NVA to operate against us it violated international law and at that time there was another alpha male nation that held us in check.
And, finally, the extensive use of drones over the air of sovereign nations is killing terrorists but it's creating fear, hatred and resentment throughout the region. We hear about the success but I can assure you that it's perceived a little differently by the people of the region, especially those who emphasize more than we do with the innocents, or apparently innocents, that are shredded by our rockets. Ed |
