Isn't this the moral hazard of war as it becomes more of a distance sport? That powerful governments can order the razing of cities and assassinate leaders with ease?

We need to do it because our enemies are doing it, in any case.

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AnbdgK a day ago | parent | next [-]

I do not think that anyone but the US and Israel have assassinated leaders in the last 30 years. I also question their autonomous drone advancement. Russia and China did not have the means to help Venezuela and they do not have the means to help Iran.

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genghisjahn a day ago | parent | next [-]

Russia and other states have demonstrably conducted targeted killings.

	▲	ks2048 a day ago \| parent \| next [-]
		https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_heads_of_state_and_gov...
	▲	dotancohen a day ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		[flagged]

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FpUser a day ago | parent | prev [-]

>"Russia and China did not have the means to help Venezuela"

Of course they have the means. Nothing technical prohibits them from blowing couple of carriers. But the price they would have to pay is way too high.

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the_af 21 hours ago | parent [-]

Did you mean Venezuela or Iran?

Because there are actual technical impediments why neither China nor the Russians could have blown a US carrier in the Caribbean.

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FpUser 21 hours ago | parent [-]

>"actual technical impediments"

I do not believe so. Not unsurmountable at least. The consequences are however far from pleasant for each side

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the_af 14 hours ago | parent [-]

I do believe there are major technical impediments; other than a modern attack sub reaching that far undetected I can't think of how they would do it. The US is the only nation that can effectively project power so far away from its borders, almost anywhere in the world.

Furthermore, you mentioned this in response to "helping Venezuela", but even damaging a carrier (something technically very, very difficult for Russia or China) would not have helped Venezuela one bit.

It'd be more technically feasible for them to help Iran than Venezuela, and even that is not particularly feasible now, other than very indirectly.

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FpUser 11 hours ago | parent [-]

>"would not have helped Venezuela one bit"

I think it would, meaning that right from that exact minute the US and Russia will be very busy and Venezuela left to it's own devices. Does not mean Venezuela would feel any better of course.

	▲	the_af 10 hours ago \| parent [-]
		This is entering fantasy land. There's no effective way of Russia to militarily help Venezuela and strike any US carrier. Same with China. You haven't proposed any because there is no feasible way. Even if they could, such action would have been followed by the US knocking Venezuela out and taking them out of the equation. A neighboring ally of an actively engaged hostile power wouldn't be "left to its own devices".

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iugtmkbdfil834 a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

It came later than I anticipated, but it did come after all. There is a reason companies like 9mother are working like crazy on various way to mitigate those risks.

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unethical_ban a day ago | parent | prev [-]

We need to [develop military technology] because our enemies do it. I don't mean we have to commit war crimes because others do it.