Nightmare scenario

[Dimentio]

Right now, we are seeing a crazy dictator bomb his own citizens. A lot of the pilots and soldiers have defected, so he have been forced to buy butchers from outside his country. Somoza did that before.

Anyway, in the future, tanks and airplanes would be increasingly remote-controlled. If we say that the computer programmes utilised to monitor those things, ruling a country as a despot could in the future resemble sitting at a computer and playing Civilization.

Then, there would not even be a moderating layer of cleptocrats, soldiers, capitalists, princes or bureaucrats in the potential way for the tyrant to do whatever he desires.

Think about that situation.

[Rafiq]

Gaddafi is doing that?

[Dimentio]

No. He is using real pilots to bomb the people indiscriminately.

[ÑóẊîöʼn]

Right now, we are seeing a crazy dictator bomb his own citizens. A lot of the pilots and soldiers have defected, so he have been forced to buy butchers from outside his country. Somoza did that before.

Anyway, in the future, tanks and airplanes would be increasingly remote-controlled. If we say that the computer programmes utilised to monitor those things, ruling a country as a despot could in the future resemble sitting at a computer and playing Civilization.

Then, there would not even be a moderating layer of cleptocrats, soldiers, capitalists, princes or bureaucrats in the potential way for the tyrant to do whatever he desires.

Think about that situation.

It's a definate concern, but automated warmachines do not completely get rid of the need for middlemen. You will still need engineers to build prototypes and upgrade current models, technicians to repair, refit and reload the machines, and even pilots or at the very least a layer of tacticians that tells which parts of the drone army when to strike and where.

Now granted, these would be rear-echelon positions that any sensible general would place far back from the firing line, and hence would be more divorced from the violence they cause than even the crew of a bomber aircraft. But the problem with rear-echelon positions is that they are more "cushy" and far more likely than frontline units to have significant civilian contact. Because, unless you're a Dr Evil with a secret and completely self-sufficient volcano base, the military cannot completely divorce itself from Civvie Street - after all, that's where the people in it come from, for a start.

But even assuming that some tyrant was able to wall himself up in a fortress, the ability to strike with impunity is only one form of projecting power, and quite a negative one at that - there's only so many policies that can be implemented by just simply bombing the fuck out things - boots on the ground can achieve things mere force cannot.

That's why armies consist of more than just tanks and airplanes.

Also, is this hypothetical tyrant prepared to bomb his own country back to the Neolithic? If so, I wonder what this tyrant will eventually end up eating once the supplies in his bunker run out and he's thoroughly pissed off everyone outside...

[TC]

No. He is using real pilots to bomb the people indiscriminately.

Where is the evidence of this? Is Tripoli being carpet bombed? No of course not. The Libyan Airforce has bombed its own airfields to prevent rebel forces from seizing them. Those are military targets in an emerging civil war - far from "bomb[ing] 'the people' indiscriminately."

[Omsk]

@TC:Look at the news,the photos,read what people are saying,that lunatic is ordering strikes against his own people,civilians.Why do you think there is so much desertion?Because he is ordering the troops to fire upon his own people.