Thread: The Drone Wars
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Old 10-11-09, 10:35 PM   #9
TarJak
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CaptainHaplo View Post
Actually - having the "crew" back in the US is a positive in more ways than one. Of course - the first is the safety issue. Saving the lives of the soldiers.

But the second benefit is that these soldiers are not in theatre. Thus they can go home to their families, they have deep resources for any type of counselling their jobs may cause them to seek.

Lastly - and an often overlooked positive - is that keeping them out of a hot zone reduces stress and the "vengeance" syndrome. A strike is carried out by someone not in the zone, not under constant, 24/7 combat pressure. That alone makes the decisions have an additional safety factor. A officer on the ground, having just gotten shot at, might choose to risk civilian casualties to take out a suspected bad guy. A guy sitting in a building safe and sound with all the intel and a line to the big dogs handy can often make a "safer" decision.

Neither will be right 100% of the time - but taking the "hot" stress out of the decision means less civilian casualties.
The big kicker is that they don't get theatre pay either.
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