Drone Assassinations could lead to "Playstation Mentality"

[Pakman3000]

A United Nations investigator is warning that CIA-controlled remote drone assassinations of suspected Islamic terrorists could lead to a "PlayStation mentality" towards killing.

Philip Alston, U.N. special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, has issued a 29-page report calling for an end to the CIA's use of unmanned Predator or Reaper drones in Afghanistan and Pakistan against al Qaeda and Taliban suspects.

Stationed hundreds to thousands of miles away from the battlefield, CIA operatives control the drones using a combination of remote video and audio, taking out targets using drone-mounted missiles. Missiles that Alston says have been responsible for the deaths of "many hundreds," innocent civilians included.

"Intelligence agencies, which by definition are determined to remain unaccountable except to their own paymasters, have no place in running programs that kill people in other countries," Alston said.

Alston's report also cites the fact that the world remains unaware of how the CIA picks its targets, where the CIA is authorized to kill, and how the organization deals with innocent civilians killed in the drone attacks.

But it isn't just the innocent victims Alston is worried about. It's the drone operators as well.

"Because operators are based thousands of miles away from the battlefield, and undertake operations entirely through computer screens and remote audio-feed, there is a risk of developing a 'Playstation' mentality to killing," he said, referring to the popular Sony video game console.

There's no doubt in anyone's mind that controlling a remote drone via video screen is a great deal like playing a video game. We ran a story last year about a 19-year-old drone pilot who attributed his success to his days playing the Xbox. Perhaps one day we'll see young people remotely controlling military vehicles without even knowing they are doing so, ala Orson Scott Card's science fiction novel Ender's Game.

Alston's report raises a lot of questions. Does the fact that you are so far removed from actual combat make the killing easier? Should any government have the power to kill a person or group of people from the other side of the planet?

Those questions and more will be pondered by the U.N. Human Rights Council today, where Alston will be presenting his report.


http://kotaku.com/5553493/cia-drone-kil ... ds-killing (http://kotaku.com/5553493/cia-drone-killings-could-lead-to-a-playstation-mentality-towards-killing)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100602/ts_ ... ngs_drones (http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100602/ts_nm/us_killings_drones)

[squidfamily1]

yeah, and? Will they have leaderboards for each engagement or what?

[tracker_usmc]

I wonder how many XP they get for each kill. :lol:

[MaximusR3]

My only concern is will they have trophies or not? Will trophies be mandatory for every operation or will this rule most likely be enacted later? :lol:


seriously though, even though i was never in the CIA, i was in the military and i know both require a lot training and discipline. If someone has made it into the CIA and into this particular program then you know they have been properly trained and should be mature enough to know the difference between real life and a game. If they do not know the difference then they really should not be in this field of work until they have matured enough to be ready for it. Taking another person's life is not an easy thing for the soul no matter how it goes down, and i have faith that those trained to do so remotely still know the difference between what is real and what is not.

As for the 19y old, I think they may have twisted his response around to their liking. Saying that playing XBOX was a large factor in his success does not necessarily mean he finds killing easy because he's been killing pixels online for years or that it desensitized him to the point of it being easy. He could have simply been trying to say that playing video games help improve his hand-eye coordination, something important for controlling a remote drone, and that it helped him better grasp the controlling of the device due to prior experience. Throw a person who has never played video games in front of the controls and they would likely need time to adjust and have to have it all explained to them in detail "i grab this stick and wiggle it to make it move?". whereas a person familiar with video games and using joysticks/controllers would more easily pick up the basics

[squidfamily1]

I can sympathize with the bad guys. I know how pissed I get when the uav gets me in BC2

[Simmion_1]

Damn Bin Laden and his friggin lag switch..

[River_Rat_459]

Will there be clan support? :D

[Timmy_2_Tones]

This is yet again, another reason why I think the UN should be dismantled. He is telling us that it is better to sacrifice humans to do the same thing that we have built these drones for. Is his next step going to be to outlaw the use of sniper rifles on the battlefield? I can understand if he wants more verification on targets, we of course should not be killing random innocent civilians. However, the CIA does not need to answer to the UN, I have enough faith that every target is legitimate, and with the collateral damage. He is failing to realize that we are still at war against terrorism. I agree with Max, there is too much training, and time invested into these operatives/Soldiers, for them to have a desensitized view.

[ASignorelli]

Meh, that's fucking BS. The guys we kill via "playstation like killing" actually kill our guys via "REAL FUCKING LIFE". So, we'll stop killing them, when they decide to stop killing us.