"Beast of Kandahar"! This sounds ominous but the fearsome sounding name hides the U.S fear of the real implications of warfare-which are beastly and horrific. Americans military Industrial Complex needs wars which American troops suffer limited casualties. High tech weapons such as the Beast of Kandahar are of U.S military Blitzkrieg –only as it was with the army of Hitler, The Beast of Kandahar cannot really win the war for the Americans. Sadly, the U.S mercenary corporate wars will bring unspeakable disasters to the region and the world.

The name "Beast of Kandahar" seems to be something dreamt up by the Press - this UAV is the RQ-170, with the rather less dramatic name, "Sentinel". The RQ indicates that it is unarmed so the "Beast" label doesn't really fit - it would probably be more appropriate for the Predator or Reaper UAVs, which can be armed. As for Iran : who knows? As this UAV is stealthy, it might well have been used over Iran to figure out where the next secret nuclear weapons facilities will be found. It would certainly be the right tool for the job - stealthy and no pilot.

Interesting if this is being used to gain extra intel from inside Iran. Although the 'probing' of Iranian defences (seeking radar blind spots, measuring Iranian responce times, listening to subsequent chatter, etc) has been going on for a while, this is the first time I have heard of a 'fast jet' type drone being used. I suppose this is a logical step as it can get in and out of a hot zone at similar speeds to a ground attack plane or a cruise missile - and would therefore give planners a better idea of what sort of responce to expect from Iran if they decided to launch an attack. If they are intended for pakistan I can't see why the US would provoke Pakistan with the use of these drones - they are already pushing the patience of some parts of the Pakistani military with their more easily tracked prop driven drones. If the US intends to up their game inside Pakistan with unmaned attack craft and mercenaries then we are all in for trouble - just because 'uniformed' US soldiers are not inside Pakistan and 'manned' planes invading their airspace it does not mean that the US won't reap the firesorm.