Do you ever listen to yourself and realize how pretentious you sound?
There is a trend here. Anything I place forth will be dismissed. Your attempt to belittle me with happy nonsense like your last line is a solid indicator of this. I know Rip likes to pretend that we're all the same online as much as we are in real life, but it's speculative nonsense on his part. You're happily belting out with an "all caps" declaration that if I have to be taken seriously, I have to blah, blah, blah.... Based entirely on your perception.
At this point, you have dismissed the notion of my job and all it implores. Stupidity does not last very long in the Intel community, civilian jokes aside. However, it's far easier for you to hammer out an online ultimatum by way of, I dunno, making yourself feel more important?
To answer your nonsense?
Per my nature and the nature of my job, I automatically call into question most basic media sources because there is no unbiased reporting left anymore. Even more so when things can be taken as hand-picked by individuals from the internet to support or bolster whatever they already feel inclined to.
You're also inclined to blow me off because you demand "proof" for everything, a classic aspect of the internet. Hell, at this point, if I told you my full name, you'd demand a copy of my birth certificate to prove it. And per the nature of my job, claiming that what I do know is "classified" is dismissed by you as an attempt on my part to cop out. You have a set notion of how things on the internet should be, and you dont respond well to anything outside of that.
You dismiss my statements because I don't have a college degree.... Despite the fact that I have eleven years of immersed training, certification and qualification within a very specific and specialized field of the military. This is something you dismiss because it's not a "college degree".
And yet again, here you are, trying to play the "noble" persona, offering gentle advice. Please, do get over yourself.
Even at this point, you’re trying to blame me for something I never mentioned. At this point, I wasn’t “complaining for not being taken seriously”… I was mocking you for being a pretentious git that can’t realize how pompous you are. But you turn it around and reach down your hand from high in an attempt to lift me up to your lofty realm. It’s amusing.
What I know about the use of drones and strike targeting could fill a good sized book. The majority of what I know about these topics, with no bravado involved, is classified. It’s not a way of trying to claim I’m special, or that I’m unique, it’s simply a fact. Most of what I know is truly classified. It’s the nature of my job… And unlike Despies heroes like Snowden or Manning, I’m actually inclined to hold to what I signed up to.
For the sake of the “conversation”…. Start tracking down the full aspects of the article that Salon.com ran.
Find better or more reasonable proof that it’s more fact than fluff, and I might be tempted to engage you in actual conversation. See, unlike you, I like to research shit on my own, and not just take stuff at base face value.