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posted by n1 on Sunday January 22 2017, @10:08PM   Printer-friendly
from the modern-warfare-remastered dept.

Submitted via IRC for Runaway1956

Once a hallmark of state-on-state conflict, simply finding oneself inside of an American kill box in today's counterterrorism wars is enough to be retroactively defined as guilty.

In laymen’s terms, “kill boxes” sound like torture devices. In military jargon, they are almost incomprehensible; as defined in the Department of Defense Dictionary, they are “a three-dimensional area reference that enables timely, effective coordination and control and facilitates rapid attacks.” But despite their ominous name and complicated technical definition, kill boxes are actually relatively simple in concept: They are three-dimensional cubes of space on a battlefield in which members and allies of the United States military are completely free to open fire.

According to the DoD, “there is no formal kill-box doctrine or tactics, techniques or procedures.” They require a sophisticated web of logistical, bureaucratic, and technological expertise to implement. Like most military tactics, kill boxes aren’t new—they’ve been around for nearly 30 years now. But they are constantly being reinvented for new conflicts. In recent years, kill-box strategy has shifted: They are now used in conflicts that are not between two states, but rather within states against terrorists and fighters who aren’t members of any particular country’s military. With this change, two things have started happening. First, kill boxes have materialized in places the local population might not expect. And second, kill boxes have been used in conjunction with disposition matrices, or “kill lists.” The DoD uses these to target people whose “pattern of life” fit the parameters of an algorithm, rather than specific individuals. For example: Say someone who owns a cellphone has been calling numbers that trigger a response from a computer at the Pentagon. Analysts will triangulate the cellphone’s whereabouts, and military leaders might initiate a “kill box” at that location, authorizing soldiers to kill everyone within the “box.” Mission accomplished.

Source: Defense One


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 22 2017, @11:35PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 22 2017, @11:35PM (#457471)

    how are your USA flags, guys, still bearing the yellow/golden fringe around it? then you are at war, and no real justice is compatible with war.

    For those of us who haven't a clue what you're on about, can you elaborate on the significance of gold fringe on flags and being at war?

  • (Score: 2, Informative) by charon on Sunday January 22 2017, @11:43PM

    by charon (5660) on Sunday January 22 2017, @11:43PM (#457473) Journal

    I feel dirty to spread such insanity around. The gist of it is: some people believe, with no basis, that the gold fringe signifies that the area is under military/admiralty jurisdiction and therefore you are no longer protected by the US Constitution.

    See here [theamericanview.com] for a level-headed take.

    • (Score: 1) by charon on Sunday January 22 2017, @11:46PM

      by charon (5660) on Sunday January 22 2017, @11:46PM (#457476) Journal
      Which, by the way, is not to say the rest of that site is level-headed. They just happen to have a clear explanation of the issue at hand.
    • (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 23 2017, @12:22AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 23 2017, @12:22AM (#457490)

      Patriots are a funny bunch. I'm always left with the impression that they think that reality is some kind of Magic: The Gathering game, where the government casts various spells and enchantments that always have occult symbols you can catch (like the gold fringes), and then your job is to recite the correct counterspell such as "I'm a citizen of the United States, not a United States citizen!"

      Magickal thinking at its best!

      • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday January 23 2017, @01:04AM

        by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Monday January 23 2017, @01:04AM (#457498) Journal

        Patriots are a funny bunch.

        You mean the same patriots which will bleed red blood, not matter if they are "black or brown or white", under a chief commander which never served in the army. It would be funny it it wasn't tragic.

        Like in [time.com]

        It’s time to remember that old wisdom our soldiers will never forget, that whether we are black or brown or white, we all bleed the same red blood of patriots.

        --
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
      • (Score: 2) by VLM on Monday January 23 2017, @03:09PM

        by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Monday January 23 2017, @03:09PM (#457652)

        Magickal thinking at its best!

        I see it as esoteric vs exoteric. Many things have completely different meanings to insiders vs outsiders and you're describing a classic mismatch of exoteric propaganda colliding violently with esoteric this is how things really are.

        In prose you see it expressed as "you have to kill the village to save the village" and so forth.

  • (Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 22 2017, @11:44PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 22 2017, @11:44PM (#457474)

    Did I ever tell you how USA Income Tax is illegal, 'cause it was started by Lincoln, and Lincoln wasn't legally president, since he was born in Illinois before Hawaii was even a territory of the America? Or how in the Second Rambo movie, the Colonel wore his beret swatch on the wrong side? And the UN is a globalist cabal that is trying to steal our precious bodily fluids? I think that about covers it. More than you need to know, since when you know too much, well, just because you are paranoid, that does not mean they actually only want to subscribe to your newsletter, if you know what I mean! (jmorris, posting as AC, because things are getting too hot.)

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 23 2017, @12:52AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 23 2017, @12:52AM (#457495)

      ...he was born in Illinois before Hawaii was even a territory of the America?

      Donald J. Trump, it's past your bedtime, young man!

    • (Score: 2) by jmorris on Monday January 23 2017, @01:01AM

      by jmorris (4844) on Monday January 23 2017, @01:01AM (#457496)

      jmorris, posting as AC, because things are getting too hot.

      Nope, never posted as AC, never will. Only one account too. If things ever get too hot I'll ditch this account and use one created and accessed exclusively via VPN. But we really don't have to worry about that for 4-8 years.

  • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 23 2017, @03:34AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 23 2017, @03:34AM (#457530)

    the significance of gold fringe on flags

    It has to do with the moon and is commonly known as the lunatic fringe. [lunaticoutpost.com]

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 23 2017, @09:02AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 23 2017, @09:02AM (#457574)

      Always thought that "yellow fringe" was just another way of saying "Golden Shower".