it's all just a game

During the bombing of Iraq back in 1991 during Operation Desert Storm a flight of B-52Gs launching from and returning to Barksdale AFB, Louisiana, struck targets inside Iraq. This was at the time the longest distance combat mission in history: 35 hours and 14,000 statute miles round trip, the pilots were practically home on time for their dinner with their family.

A record at the time it was nonetheless impressive, but today the round trip of killing people at the other side of the world has changed dramatically since now the pilots of these unmanned MQ-1 Predator drones literally mean the pilot doesn't have to leave home, as this PBS video details the pilots of them at their base in Nevada as they kill Taliban fighters in Pakistan.



What first came to my mind was its similarities to a video game, playing online shooters was always a great satisfaction (especially against strangers) because every time you shoot a person you know that some else will see the words 'You're Dead' across their screen, you haven't really killed anyone but it's still pretty fun and well worth it to know you pissed someone off that you'll probably never meet.

George Gittoes documentary Soundtrack To War details the PlayStation generation soldiers in Iraq and how different they thought the war was going to be for them.

This doesn't really run through with the Predator drone pilot since not only are they killing from medium altitudes but also from thousands of miles away, it's not at all the same psychologically.



Although Predator controllers do have to solve problems to succeed in the mission they don't risk their lives and in the end just have to finish the game before them regardless of how many civilians they kill in the meantime or the sovereignty of Pakistan.

the lethality of another Indo-Pakistan war

I actually (unlike nearly everything else) have no real opinion on the relationship between India and Pakistan, both sides are extremely biased towards the other and the decade old hatred doesn't seem to have thought neither side anything whatsoever!

Another Indo-Pakistani war in the near future would be particularly lethal and may be the first time to see nuclear weapons deployed on human beings in this century.

Many say that following the Kargil war (the last war fought between the two countries) that diplomatic relations are beginning to commence, but truth be told mutual suspicion of the other governs their relationship.



But the cost of a war if fought with no clear winner (and listening to both sides assessment it would be hard to determine just that), could result in the near annihilation of both.

Take the war between Iran and Iraq in the 1980's as an example, Iran had an economic and arms embargo on it and when attacked by a massive Iraqi force it managed to push it back and fight a devastating war on the offensive against Iraq (which was being armed by 44 countries) resulting in well over 1,000,000 slaughtered and both countries heavily damaged economically.

But the military arsenals of both of those countries wasn't enough to fight a large scale precise war, for example the Iranian Air Force very seldom went on offensives since their jet fighters were such a high asset, the Iraqi Air Force at the time had to fight a very conventional war with older MiG's (with the exception of a few dozen Mirage F-1's).

The Pakistanis on the other hand sport a good few of the good old F-16's, while they have also ordered 250 JF-17 fighters, (an interesting development to watch), the Indians on the other hand have over one hundred Su-30's and 40 Mirage 2000's.

The Iraqi Scud missiles gave Iraq the ability to make the people of Tehran flock to the hills throughout the war with Iran, but as seen on their full long term use against Tel Aviv proved capable of "only" killing a small number of Israelis using conventional explosives.



The Pakistanis and the Indians however not only have over 60 nuclear warheads each but also nuclear missiles with a range of up to 2,500km to deliver them to each others cities, this gives them (unlike the Iraqis and the Iranians) the ability to instantly wipe out thousands of each others people.

What bugs me about this is the fact is that Iran doesn't have a single nuclear warhead and have been scrutinized by the same western governments that allowed and encouraged Pakistan to build up a hefty arsenal of its own only ten years ago!



This has ensured that if and when India and Pakistan finally clash once again over religious and ethnic tensions they will have the opportunity to reek hell on each other!