Russian decisions over the past few years haven't exactly shown much long-term strategic choices or forethought, so I doubt this is an argument for them
dlatch
The US will attach an angry letter to the next shipment of bombs, I'm sure.
They have just fucking stopped halfway covering what they are doing haven't they? They realised that daddy US will protect them no matter what, so now they just go full steam ahead.
It is fairly well known that hackers backed by the Chinese government have targeted and infiltrated critical infrastructure in the West, for example https://theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/19/fbi-china-hack-infrastructure and https://www.reuters.com/technology/us-disrupts-chinese-botnet-targeting-critical-infrastructure-fbi-says-2024-01-31/ . The assumption is that this will be exploited in case of a future conflict.
It is not unthinkable that starting a bunch of fires in houses all across the country to overload emergency services and cause general unrest and chaos, is part of this strategy.
It still possibly going to send your designs to China (and you could even question having a device easily capable of starting a fire that is actively connecting to China). The only way I'd use a Bambu is if it's disconnected from the internet all together, but if I'm not mistaken they need a cloud connection to work in the first place.
It was cancelled after about a year. They said the technological developments of drones went faster than they could adjust the training of the birds, there were concerns about the well being of the birds but also the risks of using large predators in areas with big crowds, and there wasn't enough control over where the drone would end up - the bird might knock it out of the sky over a crowd.
All in all it seems like the whole idea was just a bit too uncontrollable to work as a counter-terrorism measure at events, which was the goal. The eagles just added a level of uncertainty that was not worth the gains. It might work in a situation like Ukraine though, where it is a more traditional battlefield with few civilians around. On the other hand, the drones used are offen a bit bigger and more advanced than your standard DJI, and that could definitely end up hurting the birds.
You know, even though it's still rewarding Israel's actions in a way, out of all the support the US is giving, this one I probably mind the least. It will prevent further innocent deaths (regardless of what side they are on, this is always a net positive), and it can't be used by Israel against the Palestinian and Lebanese people. Let the US take over all of the defense of Israel if it means they stop delivering bombs and missiles that Israel will use to further their genocide.
I don't think Israel would give a shit either way, and I don't think they would face any more consequences from the international community than some strong words.
Yes, that's why we have dead children now...
If this was the other way around, we'd have global outrage, days of mourning and piles of new weapons for Israel right now. We'd be speaking about one of the worst terrorist attacks in history.
No no no, they don't say it's genocide. I'm pretty sure they are fully aware it's genocide, as that's the purpose.