Drones and Liberty (Not the bee type of drones or the Constitutional type of Liberty either)

By D.C.

 Today on the Washington Post's Checkpoint blog,Craig Whitlock has this rather interesting post,"In tropical paradise, U.S. drones meant revenue".In his post,he discusses a 2010 diplomatic cable revealed by the Wiki links leak.The cable touts the economic benefits that deployment of U.S. military drones to the Seychelles have brought to the islands.

 Drones are the unmanned,sort of remote control aircraft that the military uses to hunt down and kill terrorists.I think the use of such things are a good thing and I am not here to argue against their use.I am not really going to kick around the military too much for their spending on such things either,but I did find some of the numbers in the story interesting.

 The cable points out that during the first 4 months of deployment of the drones,with the 82 military personnel and contractors need to fly them,we pumped 3.1 million U.S. tax dollars into the island's economy.I guess you could call it a sort of "stimulus package" for the islands.

 The cable then breaks down what this money was used for.One category called "Food and Liberty" accounted for $937,260.When you break that number down,it comes to roughly a $100 per day,per person.I realize that things are more expensive in the middle of the Indian Ocean,but that still sounds like a lot of "Food and Liberty" to me.

 The cable also says "Accommodations" cost $1,457,784,which works out to roughly $150 per night,per person.Whitlock seems to think that is a bargain when compared to the nearby Four Seasons Resort which charges over $500 per day.

 It just made me think about our military personnel in Afghanistan and how most of them have to rough it in the field.I understand the security issues and reasoning for stationing these drones far from the battlefield.If this is the cost of protecting our nation,I probably shouldn't gripe too much about it.

 I fully support the men and women who operate these drones,but this is what I would call a "working vacation".I guess it wouldn't be a very bad gig,if you could get it.

UPDATE: This afternoon,on the Washington Post site,Craig Whitlock posted this article,"U.S. building secret drone bases in Africa, Arabian Peninsula".In it he goes much more in depth into the story about our drone base in the Seychelles.