UPDATED 18 Feb 2013 to add Reactions
This is absolutely insane….ranks higher than a Bronze Star for Valor and cannot be awarded for serving in a combat zone. The Air Force pushed it in an effort to control the Drone and Cyber environment….Air Force would not let any comments from Afghanistan….payoff for the homage of the Air Force Generals? Most likely………
Pentagon creates new medal for cyber, drone wars
WASHINGTON (AP) — They fight the war from computer consoles and video screens.
But the troops who launch the drone strikes and direct the cyberattacks that can kill or disable an enemy may never set foot in the combat zone. Now their battlefield contributions may be recognized with the first new combat-related medal to be created in decades.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced Wednesday that the Pentagon is creating a medal that can be awarded to troops who have a direct impact on combat operations, but do it well away from any combat zone.
One comment online:
Thought at first it was a hoax but it’s not and it’s precedence sits just below the DFC. It was bad enough when NATO suggested the Courageous Restraint Award but this worse. This is Panetta’s going away slap in the face to our Nations warriors. There are plenty of rewards available for support billets without insulting/degrading front line troops. What’s next? Purple Heart for monitor eye strain or the dreaded carpal tunnel syndrome?
Phi Beta Iota: There is something to be said for the medal, because done right, drone killer operations do eat away at the soul and there is a need to recognize those who do this strange job that kills from afar. To rank it above the Bronze Star is completely unacceptable and should be remediated by the incoming Secretary of Defense, the current Secretary having clear lost his mind along with his spine over Benghazi. The moral disengagement, intellectual shallowness, and craven treason of the Joint Chiefs of Staff probably deserves a medal of its own — perhaps one shaped as a toilet seat, with crossed turds. An accurate investigation of drone operations would find that they are ten times more expensive than in-theater pilot operations; that they kill ten times more people than a more discriminating situationally-aware pilot would kill; and that the “signature sets” are so screwed up we are using Hellfire missiles to kill truck drivers taking a dump at the side of the road. Catch-22? On steroids. The only honest people in this war on the US side are the grunts on the ground.
See Also:
Graphic: New JCS Medal — We Who Sit, Serve
Mini-Me: John Brennan, Drones, Killing Children + Drone Meta-RECAP
Mongoose: Is General Patraeus Slated for “Suiciding?” + Meta-RECAP on No Rule of Law in USA
Winslow Wheeler: Will Chuck Hagel Stand Up to Drone Lobby?
UPDATED to add Reactions
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