Can Robots Be Guilty Of War Crimes?

The not so distant future is rapidly approaching, and anyone who is an enthusiast of the Discovery Channel or Science channel on cable should already be all too aware of the Robot warriors on the battle fields. The two most visible is the flying drone, the other the robot tank that assists troops in the field. (see video below)

This technology pales in comparison to the new stuff on the drawing board, imagine Asimo meets Rambo the perfect robot killer programmed like the freaky killer robots featured in the movie RoboCop."

What new questions will this technology bring to admonish the wrongdoing of others. As a computer expert here at the Computerfox in Milford, I can personally express my disgust with the classic excuse "my computer malfunctioned and therefore you cannot be assisted properly." War robots will give the Pentagon leaders some new ways of admonishing their responsibility when one of their robots malfunction and kill 150 civilians, 23 U.S. Soldiers, and 54 children.

The question of ethics will remain long into the future as to wether or not we can courtmarshall a robot? There will be no one to hold accountable as everyone will be separated and distanced from the crime it has committed even the programmers who certainly will have the robot code classified and protected by the evil of the Pentagon as a national security issue.

We can assume that these nightmarish robots will be adapted at some point in the not so distant future to police urban centers and big cities. They will more likely start off by accompanying bomb squads, assisting SWAT teams, and eventually hand you a parking or speeding ticket. This technology will pose the same troubling questions that were debated back in the 80's when HAL in the "Odyssey" nearly killed everyone on board the space ship for their own protection. Sound familiar? Check it out you decide.

Retiring Overseas Soon To Be Esoteric

As a young kid I grew up in Perugia Italy, a little town located in the province of Umbria. Umbria is a place made famous for food wine and Etruscan architecture. It was also the place that my father and brother chose to study veterinary medicine. Today both are doctors each with their own practice and my sister and I have gained a wealth of memories.

My mother was born in Sicily in a little town called San Fratello. The town was ancient when I visited there in the late seventies as It had no running water and an agrarian population that subsided by raising farm animals and growing food crops. My personal favorites, were grapes, figs, olives, prosciutto, and lots of wine.

This life was very unique, especially when compared to the grandiose lifestyle back in the United States. America being relatively new had large streets, and great big skyscrapers in every city. Italy was tight, and catered to the ancient Roman lifestyle of horse drawn carriages. Today the eco-friendly population has adapted modern day automotive technology to cater to the tight cobblestone streets that are the signature of the Roman antiquity. The photo below is of a 500 the car we used as a family back in the late 70's.

My mother and father had grown very fond of Italy as a result of their wonderful experiences, and today, have thought about retiring there. They are both already in their retirement years and have found themselves struggling to reallocate their assets in order to achieve their retirement objectives.

Like countless others they have had difficulty selling their business real-estate, have lost substantial sums of money in the market post 9/11 and today were once again reminded that America's falling dollar is making my mothers birthplace more unattainable. The reality is, that only those people who are capable of incurring such staggering losses, like the super rich, will have access to an overseas retirement.

All too many people and businesses have already fled the country, some businesses like Pfizer in Groton Ct. cannot flee fast enough as they have recently accelerated the closing of their plant. America has fallen upon hard times for reasons that few people understand or really know, but put simply our country has borrowed more than it could afford to pay and is now suffering the dire consequences.

As our nation continues its march toward a recession, or possibly a recession or worse, we all pay. We pay for our leaders mistakes at the gas pump, when we travel to other countries, when we sell our home, when we buy food, when we go to collect our social security, when we buy a car, pay our Dr's bill, or collect our 401K's and IRA's.

The most horrible position a nation can be in is where we are headed now, "Stagflation" a condition where a stagnating economy and inflation co-exist. This is the hardest condition for our leaders to cure because adjusting interest rates, and manipulating the money supply no longer work after a certain point. To put this into perspective imagine a see-saw where you fix one end of the problem and the other end gets worse and vice versa.

The next six months will determine what we as individuals will need to do to realign our lives for the new America. Should the economy continue to deteriorate then we will need to compensate in advance to prepare for a prolonged period of harder times. I will comment more on this as the new CPI or inflation figures emerge.

Council Of Foreign Relations Has Top Three Contenders

There has been much "buzz" about the Council on Foreign Relations and its importance in American politics. As it stands our Current President George Bush, and all top three contenders Hillary, Barrack and McCain are also CFR members. Virtually every President in the last 50 years was a member, or has had involvement with the CFR.

With this given, it therefore becomes important to know what exactly is the CFR and what do they stand for? According to wikipedia: "The Council's mission is promoting understanding of foreign policy and America’s role in the world. Meetings are convened at which government officials, global leaders and prominent members debate major foreign-policy issues. It has a think tank that employs prominent scholars in international affairs and it commissions subsequent books and reports. A central aim of the Council, it states, is to "find and nurture the next generation of foreign policy leaders." It established "Independent Task Forces" in 1995, which encourage policy debate. Comprising experts with diverse backgrounds and expertise, these task forces seek consensus in making policy recommendations on critical issues; to date, the Council has convened more than fifty times.

The internal think tank is the The David Rockefeller Studies Program, which grants fellowships and whose programs are described as being integral to the goal of contributing to the ongoing debate on foreign policy; fellows in this program research and write on the most important challenges facing the United States and the world.

At the outset of the organization, founding member Elihu Root said the group's mission, epitomized in its journal Foreign Affairs, should be to "guide" American public opinion. In the early 1970s, the CFR changed the mission, saying that it wished instead to "inform" public opinion."

Many people who have knowledge of the CFR have said that they "guide" and "inform" us through manipulation and control of the media. One of the biggest critics of this media control has been Phil Donahue who has argued the Pentagon has hijacked our media and delivered us military news. It is also important to know that Donahue was cancelled from MSNBC because his post 9/11 view did not cater to the "Climate of Fear" that Peter Arnette (Also Fired) spoke about.

The underlying criticism of the CFR is that it shapes and promotes the opinion of these "study programs" and breeds American leaders whose foreign policy objectives become mere media trite and opinion by pre-selected pro-war groups of corporate controlled media outlets. This has been occurring at the expense of true and accurate reporting of which is based on the climate of the country and not the ambitions and needs of the military and its global objectives.

Fortunately many Americans are increasingly realizing that there is more opinion out there than actual news, and this is eroding the credibility of the mainstream media. We are increasingly seeing this through the financial hardship and growing competition from alternate news sources that are reporting facts instead of opinion. This problem is currently being dealt with through a legislative quest to regulate the prime source of contradictory views on media war reporting and opinion... the internet. Should the current plans become fully implemented it may become entirely possible that you will need a permit to launch a website and its content will have to comply with stricter laws and regulations or sites will be remotely cancelled.

The video below is from Phil Donahue, he brings up some very interesting points about media control and his view on the future of America and its war agenda.



Trailer Body Of War. www.bodyofwar.com



CFR In The News:

Blackwater Corp. Mercinaries in "Hot Water."

The news has been very critical of Blackwater in the last several weeks. The accusations are that Blackwater has used lethal force against citizens of Iraq for no justified reason and engaged in illegal arms trading. This article today is going to look into the Blackwater criticism and hopefully give today's readers a better understanding of how this private security force conducts its operations.

First let's define Blackwater, (this information comes from http://www.blackwaterusa.com/) Blackwater is a private corporation currently working under the U.S. Government, they provide assistance in the form of Aviation, Maritime, K9 Attack dogs, an Airborne style military, and security services. While it is difficult to assess the the total paramilitary employees this company has, estimates are 1000 multinational paramilitary soldiers in Iraq, and as high as 40,000 internationally. These personnel have come under fire for many reasons and the public has become increasingly sceptical of their involvement in the global war theater.

Abc News recently has reported accusations that Blackwater has been smuggling weapons into Iraq, weapons that have landed in the hands of Militants who are intent at using them to kill American soldiers. (See the ABC News archive at http://abcnews.go.com/search?searchtext=blackwater&type=


Currently I have been actively investigating the scope of purpose of Blackwater, and I have heard a variety of reasons as to why they are benefiting the U.S. I still am not entirely certain on their usefulness. Hopefully the above captioned video helps get a novice started on understanding this company and the accusations against them. I believe that Blackwater may even be a CIA front company.