If a drone ever kills a U.S. government official on American soil, the news will call it unprecedented. But it will not be unprecedented. We have been precedenting it in other countries for 20 years now

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/03/18/hegseth-rubio-drone-targeting-iran/

#USPol

Here's me on the drone wars, ten years ago. (When Barack Obama was still the president.)

https://jasonlefkowitz.net/2016/09/the-real-price-of-our-secret-wars/

The real price of our secret wars - Just Well Mixed

It's moral debt. And someday, some generation of Americans will be called upon to pay it off

Just Well Mixed
(At this point I mostly keep my old blog around for "I told you so" purposes)
@jalefkowit imo thatโ€™s a really great reason to keep a blog.
Same! And sometimes I still post to it for the same reason.
@jalefkowit Spite and Righteous Indignation are two phenomenal motivations for doing anything.
@jalefkowit it's fucking wild that "maybe endless, undeclared, secret war is bad, actually" was a bold and unpopular take back then. you nailed it, of course, but it continues to be depressing that this wasn't generally obvious

@jalefkowit

I watched "citizenfour" and the BIG reveal at the end, teh last line of that film was, there were, 1 million people on the Obama kill/capture list (and at the time we were sooooo hot for UAV Hellfire drone strikes, that's all they did for 8 years in Iraq and Afghanistan). Can you imagine 1M people on a list, where you attempt to get any kinds of human intelligence, signals intelligence, anything, social graph, doctors records, cell phone IMEI numbers. All just to add to a queue.

@jalefkowit I mean, what is a cruise-missile but a drone with a rocket motor.
@sysadmin1138 @jalefkowit and that motor is only to get it clear of the launcher and up to speed for the turbine to take over.
@jalefkowit yes, but it only counts when it happens to Americans, it seems
@clarkiestar Welcome to America ๐Ÿ™ƒ
@jalefkowit can I suggest "delicious" as a replacement?
@jalefkowit This base is like five blocks from my house. ๐Ÿ˜
@APBBlue @jalefkowit I've gotten the impression that they try to reduce collateral damage, at least.