How many readers actually know what a Predator Drone is and does?

Why ... why ... do "they" hate us .... wouldn't you?

Whether listening to American politicians of any party or reading American history textbooks edited to propagandize, we get all that narcissistic swill about indomitable spirit, invincibility, courage and nobility of purpose

That's our political and civic drug of choice ... what we tell ourselves before we look away.

But that message falls on deaf ears abroad because actions speak louder than words ... as they always do.

From Common Dreams -Did You Hear the Joke About the Predator Drone That Bombed?

 “Somewhere in the United States, a drone operator sits in a booth with a joystick and commandeers a pilot-less aircraft armed with deadly bombs. 

Much like in a video game, he aims, shoots and fires at targets he sees on a satellite map….Sometimes the target is killed and sometimes the intelligence is faulty and a sleeping family or a wedding party bears the brunt of the miscalculation. 

At all times, however, the Taliban capitalize on the ensuing mayhem and gain new recruits and re-energize old ones. Terror thus spreads not simply in the village where the drone attack has taken place but far and wide in the bazaars of Peshawar and the streets of Lahore and the offices of Islamabad where these recruits avenge their anger against the drone attacks."

If one Predator Drone from another country flew here to knock out a military target and missed and hit one little old lady feeding pigeons in a park ... all the super patriots in all the taverns and churches would fill the streets ... new enlistments in the armed forces would triple ... more 2nd amendment types would be publicly packing ...

Our government would make no moves to stop any of this. 

With the financial crisis, Obama has called for a three-year freeze on domestic spending, leading to cuts in everything from nutrition programs to national parks. But the Defense Department is exempt from the freeze and in the case of drones, the money is pouring in. The U.S. Defense Appropriations FY2011 doubles the outlay for drones. The U.S. taxpayer will now spend a mind-boggling $2.2 billion for the procurement of Predator-class aircraft, thus guaranteeing the slaughter of innocents for many years to come.

How better if we simply gave up our obsession with showing off new age game-like lethal technology and acted like the grownup in the house rather than the childish imp.