Afghanistan In The Atomic Age, Predators Over Pakistan

Three in a row from The NYT: 1) Pakistan. It's falling apart. 

The only way forward is for the government and those opposition politicians, such as Mr. Sharif, who still have popular support to unite with progressive elements inside the Army, and to recognize the real and immediate danger of the Islamist threat. If they do not, their country risks becoming a nuclear-armed Afghanistan.

That's encouraging. 2) Predators Over Pakistan. (As told in The NYT Business section, because death is always good business.)

Air Force officials acknowledge that more than a third of their unmanned Predator spy planes — which are 27 feet long, powered by a high-performance snowmobile engine, and cost $4.5 million apiece — have crashed, mostly in Iraq and Afghanistan. [...] P. W. Singer, a defense analyst at the Brookings Institution, said the Predators have already had “an incredible effect,” though the remote control raised obvious questions about whether the military could become “more cavalier” about using force. Still, he said, “these systems today are very much Model T Fords. These things will only get more advanced.”

Alright. We can't wait until one of these things can track our IP Address & pop a friendly little reminder about patriotism, the limits of "free speech" & treason right into our motel room.

But enough w/ the coming war at home.

3) The representations of two (for lack of a better term) public intellectuals have a "diavlog" about the use of UAVs on the other side of the world, & collateral damage. We haven't, & may never, watched it, but it does go w/the subject, so why not get all new media?