The latest in drone technology is a wide angle high resolution video system that will be attached to the Reaper Drone (that is the big one  – the Predators are the small ones) to enable troops on the ground to see in high resolution entire towns all at once.

       What is different from the existing drone video technology? Existing video is like looking though a straw in terms of seeing targets and,  by most accounts, the video image is poor quality, leading to the many mistaken “I thought that school bus was a terrorist van” incidents.

    The new Gorgon Stare video –named after the lady who could turn to stone anyone who saw her face - can be downloaded to as many as 12 soldiers on the ground and is thought to be particularly effective against “squirters” – you know, the bad guys who run out of the building in all directions when we toss in a grenade or two. Now one system can track everyone for targeted execution by Hellfire missiles.

       Well, increased video capability is certainly a good thing as it should reduce killing innocents which has been a huge problem but you have to ask, if we have such incredible killing technology, why do we have to fight a ground war against Afghan hillbillies who are not terrorists (indeed, most of the Taliban don’t even have passports and will never leave their country)?

     We always get the “we have to do this to stop them rebuilding the  terrorist camps” rationale but we can now clearly blast any new camp into pieces.

        And after the war? Why not an Eye in the Sky over every city, watching, watching, waiting for some bad guys to appear and, in the meantime, keeping track of you when you visit that lady in the Motel 6. Well, perhaps the ACLU will have something to see – I mean say - about that.

mari, the FBI has had an 'eye in the sky', over many large cities for at least 20 years. If you ever hear an aircraft with the call sign, "Idaho", that's them.

...what would happen if we gave terrorists $68k instead of throwing $68k worth of missile at them. Show them the joys of lose women to boot, and soon they'll all be rich atheists looking for business opportunities.

not defeat the terrorist. Only combat troops on the ground can get the job done. Serving in combat should be made a requirement for immigration to the US. To augment this, the draft needs to be restarted. In order to be drafted a inductee would need to have a criminal record or have experience as a jail guard or be an immigrant. This solution would solve a number of problems. It would end immigration issues. Just round up all of the illegals,draft them and send them to combat since they are already criminals. All of the criminals in all of the US jails can be drafted and sent to combat. After that all of the unemployed jail guards can be drafted and sent to combat. Anyone who has issues with this approach can be arrested , charged with treason , drafted and then sent to combat. The war would be declared won in 20 years and West Asia will become the 51st US state because we will have paid for it in blood by then.

I mean, seriously, naming stuff "Predator" and "The Reaper" is only good PR for the Soldier of Fortune crowd.

Gorgon Stare is pretty bad too, except in our dumbed down population most have no idea what a gorgon is.

sending in a bunch of uneducated rule breakers/non conformist is just asking for trouble.