"Clash of Civilizations" author Samuel Huntington dies

Huntington's ideas are not only interesting, but they are also not easy to dismiss - I doubt that many conservatives spend 58 years at Harvard!

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BOSTON (Reuters) – Political scientist Samuel Huntington, whose controversial book "The Clash of Civilizations" predicted conflict between the West and the Islamic world, has died at age 81, Harvard University said on Saturday.

Huntington, who taught for 58 years at Harvard before retiring in 2007, died Wednesday at a nursing facility in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, the university said on its website.

In his 1996 "The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order," which expanded on his 1993 article in Foreign Affairs magazine, Huntington divided the world into rival civilizations based mainly on religious traditions such as Christianity, Islam, Hinduism andConfucianism and said competition and conflict among them was inevitable.

His focus on religion rather than ideology as a source of conflict in the post-Cold War world triggered broad debate about relations between the Western and Islamic worlds, especially in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

Despite criticism his thesis was simplistic or in the words of Middle East scholar Edward Said promoted the idea of "West versus the rest," Huntington told Islamica magazine in 2007, "My argument remains that cultural identities, antagonisms and affiliations will not only play a role, but play a major role in relations between states."

Huntington's 2004 book, "Who Are We? The Challenges to America's National Identity," also sparked heated debate by arguing the massive influx of Mexican immigrants to the United States threatened traditional American identity and national unity.

"People all over the world studied and debated his ideas," friend and Harvard professor emeritus Henry Rosovsky wrote on the Harvard website. "I believe that he was clearly one of the most influential political scientists of the last 50 years."

Huntington, who wrote, co-wrote or edited 17 books, served in the White House in 1977 and 1978 under President Jimmy Carter as coordinator for security planning for the National Security Council.

He is survived by his wife, Nancy, and two sons.

Bush, Cheney comforted troops privately

Whatever we might think of think of President Bush's policies, I am not in the least surprised to find this out about Bush in private.  President Bush believes in the justness of his cause and feels for these soldiers in a truly personal way.

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Joseph Curl and John Solomon
Washington Times

For much of the past seven years, President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have waged a clandestine operation inside the White House. It has involved thousands of military personnel, private presidential letters and meetings that were kept off their public calendars or sometimes left the news media in the dark.

Their mission: to comfort the families of soldiers who died fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and to lift the spirits of those wounded in the service of their country.

On Monday, the president is set to make a more common public trip - with reporters in tow - to Walter Reed Army Medical Center, home to many of the wounded and a symbol of controversy earlier in his presidency over the quality of care the veterans were receiving.

But the size and scope of Mr. Bush's and Mr. Cheney's private endeavors to meet with wounded soliders and families of the fallen far exceed anything that has been witnessed publicly, according to interviews with more than a dozen officials familiar with the effort.

"People say, 'Why would you do that?'" the president said in an Oval Office interview with The Washington Times on Friday. "And the answer is: This is my duty. The president is commander in chief, but the president is often comforter in chief, as well. It is my duty to be - to try to comfort as best as I humanly can a loved one who is in anguish."

Mr. Bush, for instance, has sent personal letters to the families of every one of the more than 4,000 troops who have died in the two wars, an enormous personal effort that consumed hours of his time and escaped public notice. The task, along with meeting family members of troops killed in action, has been so wrenching - balancing the anger, grief and pride of families coping with the loss symbolized by a flag-draped coffin - that the president often leaned on his wife, Laura, for emotional support.

"I lean on the Almighty and Laura," Mr. Bush said in the interview. "She has been very reassuring, very calming."

Mr. Bush also has met privately with more than 500 families of troops killed in action and with more than 950 wounded veterans, according toWhite House spokesman Carlton Carroll. Many of those meetings were outside the presence of the news media at the White House or at private sessions during official travel stops, officials said.

The first lady said those private visits, many of which she also attended, took a heavy emotional toll, not just on the president, but on her as well.

Controversial General Patton was murdered to cover up secret deal between U.S. and U.S.S.R., new book claims

This is nonsense! Patton was alive and communicating during the two weeks or so after the accident and before his death. I think he would have said something if he thought he was setup!

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BARRY WIGMORE
London Daily Mail


George Patton, the most successful American general in the Second World War, was murdered on the orders of the U.S. Army top brass, a book has alleged. 

Patton was threatening to shame U.S. leaders by revealing a secret deal between America and the Soviet Union that cost 19,000 GI lives, it is claimed. 

Military historian Robert Wilcox spent ten years investigating Patton's death on December 21, 1945  -  63 years ago yesterday  -  following acar crash in Mannheim, Germany, 12 days earlier. 

A U.S army truck collided head-on with Patton's Cadillac. 

The vehicles were doing less than 20mph and the other occupants were uninjured, but Patton broke his neck and died in hospital of a blood clot. 

The general, who revelled in his nickname of Old Blood and Guts, was famously portrayed by George C Scott in the Oscar-winning 1970 film, Patton. 

His outspoken hatred of the Soviets led to him being sidelined as the war drew to a close. 

Mr Wilcox writes that Patton was threatening to quit the Army and denounce Supreme Allied Commander, General Dwight D Eisenhower, once his junior and close friend, who he believed had made a deal with the Soviets to stop him racing them to Berlin. 

This left hundreds of thousands of German troops free to escape to kill U.S troops in the Battle of the Bulge, and let the Russians take Eastern Europe. 

Mr Wilcox says General 'Wild Bill' Donovan, boss of the Office of Strategic Service  -  forerunner of the CIA  -  ordered assassin Douglas Bazata to kill Patton. 

The historian interviewed Bazata, who died in 1999, and was granted access to his diaries. 

In his book, Target Patton, Mr Wilcox cites diary entries which apparently reveal that Bazata arranged for the lorry to plough into Patton's car, then broke his neck with a rubber-bullet gun. 

Bazata said that when the general began to recover, U.S. officials turned a blind eye as Russian agents poisoned him. No autopsy was performed. 

Mr Wilcox said: 'Bazata confessed to me that he had caused Patton's accident. 

'Patton wanted to go to war with the Russians. The administration thought he was nuts. 

'He also knew secrets of the war which would have ruined careers. I don't think Dwight Eisenhower would ever have been elected president if Patton had lived to say the things he wanted to say.'

Inside Europe's strangest 'theme park': A secret underground base offers a terrifyingly realistic reminder of Soviet occupation

Okay, this is just plain creepy!

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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1099140/Inside-Europes-strangest-theme-park-secret-underground-base-offers-terrifyingly-realistic-reminder-Soviet-occupation.html

US Senator serves military duty in Afghanistan

This is a truly a rare thing these days, a senator still in the military after 30+ years!

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KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) – The men around Lindsey Graham ignored his powerful political title — U.S. senator — and instead addressed him by rank — colonel.

Graham, a Republican from South Carolina and the only U.S. senator in the military's Guard or Reserves, donned the Air Force's camouflaged uniform for five days last week to serve in Kabul.

The senator enrolled in the ROTC in 1973 and has been in the Air Force Guard or Reserves as a military lawyer ever since. In Kabul, he worked with the staff of military lawyers at the U.S. base Camp Eggers. The office is helping to train military judges and defense lawyers, and to write Afghanistan's uniform code of military justice.

Graham said his experiences in the military taught him how difficult wartime deployments can be on families.

"One thing I learned is that when a soldier, airman or a Marine is away, the more we can take care of the family, the better they're going to be able to do their job because there's nothing worse than being deployed and having family problems," said Graham, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Graham said that when the military mobilized for the war in Iraq, about 20 percent of Guard and Reserve forces were medically disqualified. He said it wasn't smart to have "20 percent of your force out of the fight without a shot being fired." About 25 percent of the Guard and Reserves were uninsured.

In response, Graham worked with Sen. Hillary Clinton in 2005 to allow members of the Guard and Reserve to purchase health insurance for themselves and their families through TRICARE, the military's health care system.

Seven years after the U.S. invaded Afghanistan to oust the Taliban for hosting al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden, the United States has a record level of some 32,000 forces in the country, and American commanders have asked for 20,000 more. Violence has soared over the last two years.

Graham, who was in the capital from Sunday through Thursday, called the challenges in Afghanistan "enormous," and said the U.S. "let some time get by" without enough focus on the country.

"It's going to get tougher before it gets better. But we have a new strategy in place. Gen. (David) Petreaus understands how to win wars," Graham said, referring to the chief of U.S. Central Command. "So I want the people of America to know we're here to make our own national security better."

The Taliban appears to be making gains in Afghanistan's provinces, and more U.S. soldiers have died in Afghanistan in 2008 than in any year since the invasion, but Graham said history shows that the momentum in conflicts can turn quickly.

In 1987, Graham said, the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the U.S. was "vigorous." By 1990, he pointed out, it was over.

"Momentum for evil or good can be powerful. Things can really deteriorate fast, but things can change and I've learned that in Iraq," Graham said of the country, where violence has dropped quickly over the last year. Graham has also served time in Iraq in the Air Force Reserves.

The politician said his service in the military has made him a better senator.

"You don't need to be in the military to be a good senator or president, but every experience you have helps you," Graham said.

The ultimate boys' toy: The giant radio-controlled tank that's SO powerful it could pull your car

Okay, this is pretty silly, but I just couldn't resist!

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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1096548/The-ultimate-boys-toy-The-giant-radio-controlled-tank-thats-SO-powerful-pull-car.html

Sinise: A Man For All Services

I had heard good things about Sinise, but I didn't realize he had done this much!

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Andrew Breitbart
Washington Times


Since war became a geographically distant but very real way of life after Sept. 11, 2001, no Hollywood star has stepped up to support active duty U.S. military personnel and wounded veterans like Gary Sinise. There is no close second. And quietly, as is in his nature, he is becoming something akin to this generation's Bob Hope.

One step in conferring this worthy title on the award-winning actor, director and producer occurred last week when President Bush bestowed on him the Presidential Citizens Medal, the second highest civilian honor awarded to citizens for exemplary deeds performed in service of the nation. Previous recipients include Henry "Hank" Aaron, Muhammad Ali, Colin L. Powell and Bob Dole.

While the White House ceremony flew under the radar of most of the media, most notably the entertainment press, word has trickled out to many of his countless admirers in and out of the military. And on the occasion of him receiving the award, they want America to take in their words of praise for, as Sharon Tyk in the USO of Illinois put it, this "gallant American patriot."

Michael Yon, a Special Forces vet and the pre-eminent war journalist of our time, communicated his admiration in a dispatch from Bahrain: "Gary is a true friend of the American soldier. He does not hesitate to travel into war zones to express his admiration and personal support for those who defend us. He visits wounded soldiers, some of whom I personally know. All love him.

"Soldiers from privates to generals admire Gary for his dedication to a cause greater than any of us. Gary's dedication went much further. He personally supported sending millions of dollars worth of school and clothing supplies to Iraqi children. I saw this effort with my own eyes. Gary Sinise is a Great American."

In 2004, "Seabiscuit" author Laura Hillenbrand with Mr. Sinise founded Operation Iraqi Children, a nonprofit group dedicated to helping the U.S. military distribute school supplies in the war-stricken country.

"For a lot of celebrities, charitable work equals photo opportunity and nothing more," Miss Hillenbrand wrote in an e-mail. "For Gary, giving of himself, and giving to his country, is what makes life meaningful and joyful. It is perhaps the most essential part of his character, and it is his passion."

Mr. Sinise not only "supports the troops," but he champions their mission as well.

"I have seen Iraqi kids climbing on our soldiers and hugging them and kissing them," Mr. Sinise said. "I have seen their smiling faces and their attempts to say 'I love you' in broken English. The folks I saw had hope in their eyes and gratitude in their hearts for what was done for them."

Mr. Sinise, who currently stars in "CSI: New York," is best known for his Oscar-nominated turn as Lt. Dan Taylor in "Forrest Gump," which won the best picture Academy Award in 1994.

Lt. Dan - the iconic character who lost his limbs in the Vietnam War - created a connection between Mr. Sinise and veterans that reached far beyond the big screen.

"His superb performance brought awareness of the lifelong sacrifice of disabled veterans into the public consciousness in a remarkably positive way," said retired Maj. Gary Weaver of the U.S. Marine Corps and national director of communications for Disabled American Veterans.

In 2004, Mr. Sinise, wanting to do more, formed the Lt. Dan Band, a jam band created almost exclusively to entertain the troops in and out of war zones.

"It's very important that you know we are grateful," the bass guitar playing Mr. Sinise recently said while performing at the Pentagon. "The sacrifice you and your families make - you are not forgotten."

Miss Tyk recalled their first performance: "There were only about 30 of us present - at tops - at the Great Lakes Naval Base. I said to my colleague, 'Oh, another actor band.' Then the magic happened. During the break, Gary took the microphone and addressed the troops from the heart. He spoke about his commitment to them, to our country and how much he appreciated their willingness to protect and fight for our freedoms. That is the moment I knew he was the 'genuine article.' You could actually feel his love for them."

Miss Tyk recalled another memorable experience with Mr. Sinise.

"We picked up Gary at 5 a.m.," she wrote. "I felt somewhat crabby because I had to get up very, very early to get him to the CBS studios. There he was in front of the residence waiting for us with a smile on his face eagerly waiting to help. I thought to myself, Sharon you need to learn a lesson from this man. Look at him, he's honored and thrilled to help and he's not even getting paid to do this and you are! His love for the mission that day completely changed my thought process. He is the perfect example of 'you teach what you live.' "

Lt. Col. Scott Rainey concurred: "If I have learned anything from over 25 years of being around troops it is that they are among the most perceptive of souls. It is virtually impossible to 'pull the wool over their eyes.' Insincerity and falseness are immediately recognized for what they are and those who demonstrate these characteristics are quickly marginalized and ignored. What I learned within the first 10 minutes of meeting Gary Sinise at a dusty airbase in Kuwait last July was that these character flaws are completely absent in this patriotic and selfless man."

Spc. Jason M. Hale, who encountered Mr. Sinise at Camp Ramadi, e-mailed: "He was the only celebrity that came to take pictures with us where we worked on base, and you had the feeling that if he could, he would have grabbed a weapon and gone on patrol with us. That's how much he connected with the troops. He's one of those Hollywood guys who doesn't act like he's from Hollywood, and to those who are living in the desert, putting their lives on the line, that's quite refreshing."

To get a sense of the scope of what Mr. Sinise means to soldiers such as Spc. Hale, filmmaker and Air Force veteran Jonathan Flora followed him and his band to Afghanistan and Iraq in 2008. He recounts one time when he witnessed one of Mr. Sinise's typical interactions with the troops.

"It was hot, Iraq hot when we stopped at a check point before entering an FOB (Forward Operating Base). Gary began speaking with a soldier through the window and soon we were all standing outside so he could have his picture taken with him and a few of his buddies. Soon there were at least 50 guys around him, and he greets each one as he always does. This is an unscheduled stop, and we are being urged to move on so as to be on time for his next stop, but Gary, still, meets with each one and gives them their time. Finally, we have to move on as he says good-bye to the last soldier.

"As we are about to get into the vehicle we hear the guys yelling and in the distance is one more soldier. He is dressed in full battle-rattle humping as fast as he can in this unbearable heat to get to Gary before he leaves. He had just been relieved from his point and heard that Gary Sinise had stopped by the check point, and he was determined not to miss him. Gary without hesitation stopped and waited and he greeted this young man as if he was the first man in line, full of enthusiasm and appreciation.

"When we did finally get into the vehicle I mentioned to Gary how I observe how he makes each and every man or woman feel special and appreciated, he paused in thought before answering, as he often does, and then says with a heavy heart, 'It's because we don't know what the next hour holds for them. As tired as I might get sometimes, and I do, it is nothing compared to what they go through day after day with the price they are so readily willing to pay.' "

Fox News will be broadcasting Mr. Flora's one-hour special in prime time Jan. 10.

Deb Rickert of Operation Support our Troops said it best about Mr. Sinise, the recipient of the Presidential Citizens Medal.

"In an age when the public often lavishes epitaphs of greatness on celebrities merely because they are famous, the military community bestows the simple title of friend on Gary Sinise truly because that is what he is to us."


Andrew Breitbart is the founder of the news Web site www.breitbart.com and the video site www.breitbart.tv. He also is co-author of "Hollywood Interrupted: Insanity Chic in Babylon - the Case Against Celebrity."

Rumsfeld nemesis Shinseki to be named VA secretary

I predict that he will be the next SecDef if and when Gates steps down!

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WASHINGTON (AP) – President-elect Barack Obama has chosen retired Gen. Eric K. Shinseki to be the next Veterans Affairs secretary, turning to a former Army chief of staff once vilified by the Bush administration for questioning its Iraq war strategy.

Obama will announce the selection of Shinseki, the first Army four-star general of Japanese-American ancestry, at a news conference Sunday in Chicago. He will be the first Asian-American to hold the post of Veterans Affairs secretary, adding to the growing diversity of Obama's Cabinet.

"I think that General Shinseki is exactly the right person who is going to be able to make sure that we honor our troops when they come home," Obama said in an interview with NBC's "Meet the Press" to be broadcast Sunday.

NBC released a transcript of the interview after The Associated Press reported that Shinseki was Obama's pick.

Shinseki's tenure as Army chief of staff from 1999 to 2003 was marked by constant tensions with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, which boiled over in 2003 when Shinseki testified to Congress that it might take several hundred thousand U.S. troops to control Iraq after the invasion.

Rumsfeld and his deputy, Paul Wolfowitz, belittled the estimate as "wildly off the mark" and the army general was ousted within months. But Shinseki's words proved prophetic after President George W. Bush in early 2007 announced a "surge" of additional troops to Iraq after miscalculating the numbers needed to stem sectarian violence.

Obama said he selected Shinseki for the VA post because he "was right" in predicting that the U.S. will need more troops in Iraq than Rumsfeld believed at the time.

"When I reflect on the sacrifices that have been made by our veterans and I think about how so many veterans around the country are struggling even more than those who have not served — higher unemployment rates, higher homeless rates, higher substance abuse rates, medical care that is inadequate — it breaks my heart," Obama told NBC.

Shinseki, 66, is slated to take the helm of the government's second largest agency, which has been roundly criticized during the Bush administration for underestimating the amount of funding needed to treat thousands of injured veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Thousands of veterans currently endure six-month waits for disability benefits, despite promises by current VA Secretary James Peake and his predecessor, Jim Nicholson, to reduce delays. The department also is scrambling to upgrade government technology systems before new legislation providing for millions of dollars in new GI benefits takes effect next August.

Sen. Daniel Akaka, chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, praised Shinseki as a "great choice" who will make an excellent VA secretary.

"I have great respect for General Shinseki's judgment and abilities," said Akaka, D-Hawaii, in a statement. "I am confident that he will use his wisdom and experience to ensure that our veterans receive the respect and care they have earned in defense of our nation. President-elect Obama is selecting a team that reflects our nation's greatest strength, its diversity, and I applaud him."

Obama's choice of Shinseki, who grew up in Hawaii, is the latest indication that the president-elect is making good on his pledge to have a diverse Cabinet.

In Obama's eight Cabinet announcements so far, white men are the minority with two nominations — Timothy Geithner at Treasury and Robert Gates at Defense. Three are women — Janet Napolitano at Homeland Security, Susan Rice as United Nations ambassador and Hillary Rodham Clinton at State. Eric Holder at the Justice Department is African American, while Bill Richardson at Commerce is Latino.

Shinseki is a recipient of two Purple Hearts for life-threatening injuries in Vietnam.

Upon leaving his post in June 2003, Shinseki in his farewell speech sternly warned against arrogance in leadership.

"You must love those you lead before you can be an effective leader," he said. "You can certainly command without that sense of commitment, but you cannot lead without it. And without leadership, command is a hollow experience, a vacuum often filled with mistrust and arrogance."

Shinseki also left with the warning: "Beware a 12-division strategy for a 10-division army."

Gates agrees to stay on under Obama

Best news I have heard yet on the Obama Administration!

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Politico.com


Defense Secretary Robert Gates has agreed to stay on under President-elect Barack Obama, according to officials in both parties. Obama plans to announce a national-security team early next week that includes Gates at the Pentagon and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) as secretary of state, officials said.

Retired Marine Gen. James Jones, former Marine commandant and commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Europe, will be named national security adviser, the officials said.

The national security adviser heads the National Security Council, which is the part of the White House structure that deals with foreign policy, and varies in influence from presidency to presidency. Jones insisted on – and got – a commanding role, the sources said.

Democrats familiar with the national-security event early next week said they also expect James Steinberg, who was deputy national security adviser in the Clinton administration, to be named deputy secretary of State; Susan Rice, Obama’s senior foreign policy adviser on the campaign, to be named U.S. ambassador to the United Nations; and retired Adm. Dennis Blair, the former commander-in-chief of the U.S. Pacific Command and a veteran of the NSC, Central Intelligence Agency and Joint Chiefs of Staff, to be named the director of national intelligence.

Tom Donilon, an assistant secretary of state for public affairs and chief of staff at the U.S. Department of State during the Clinton administration, is a leading candidate to be Jones’ deputy at the NSC, officials said.

The team gives Obama experience in the bureaucracy and credibility with the military, although it could lead to criticism from his party’s left wing that the lineup is more hawkish and less revolutionary than his supporters expected.

David Axelrod, the incoming White House senior adviser, said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week”: “The president-elect was clear throughout the campaign that when he became president, that he was going to give the secretary of defense a new mission, and that mission was going to be to wind down our involvement. Nothing has changed.”

Axelrod said Obama enjoys and invites strong opinions and there will be no “potted plants” in his Cabinet.

Gates has been negotiating with Obama emissaries over his deputies — some will be retained, and some new — and how the Pentagon will be run.

The selection of a member of President George W. Bush’s inner circle allows Obama to deliver on his promise of a bipartisan Cabinet, even though Gates has an intelligence background and has not been an active Republican.

The appointment has substantial advantages for Obama, who now can keep his pledge of drawing down troops in Iraq with the aid of an architect of the Bush administration’s successful troop "surge" strategy. The presence of Gates also will help finesse Obama’s relationship with Gen. David Petraeus, the former U.S. commander in Iraq and now the head of the U.S. Central Command, which includes Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Gates nomination was first reported as a “done deal” by ABC News.

Gates will not have to be reconfirmed, officials said.

Pentagon hires British scientist to help build robot soldiers that 'won't commit war crimes'

Tim Shipman
London Telegraph


The US Army and Navy have both hired experts in the ethics of building machines to prevent the creation of an amoral Terminator-style killing machine that murders indiscriminately.

By 2010 the US will have invested $4 billion in a research programme into "autonomous systems", the military jargon for robots, on the basis that they would not succumb to fear or the desire for vengeance that afflicts frontline soldiers.

A British robotics expert has been recruited by the US Navy to advise them on building robots that do not violate the Geneva Conventions.

Colin Allen, a scientific philosopher at Indiana University's has just published a book summarising his views entitled Moral Machines: Teaching Robots Right From Wrong.

He told The Daily Telegraph: "The question they want answered is whether we can build automated weapons that would conform to the laws of war. Can we use ethical theory to help design these machines?"

Pentagon chiefs are concerned by studies of combat stress in Iraq that show high proportions of frontline troops supporting torture and retribution against enemy combatants.

Ronald Arkin, a computer scientist at Georgia Tech university, who is working on software for the US Army has written a report which concludes robots, while not "perfectly ethical in the battlefield" can "perform more ethically than human soldiers."

He says that robots "do not need to protect themselves" and "they can be designed without emotions that cloud their judgment or result in anger and frustration with ongoing battlefield events".

Airborne drones are already used in Iraq and Afghanistan to launch air strikes against militant targets and robotic vehicles are used to disable roadside bombs and other improvised explosive devices.

Last month the US Army took delivery of a new robot built by an American subsidiary of the British defence company QinetiQ, which can fire everything from bean bags and pepper spray to high-explosive grenades and a 7.62mm machine gun.

But this generation of robots are all remotely operated by humans. Researchers are now working on "soldier bots" which would be able to identify targets, weapons and distinguish between enemy forces like tanks or armed men and soft targets like ambulances or civilians.

Their software would be embedded with rules of engagement conforming with the Geneva Conventions to tell the robot when to open fire.

Dr Allen applauded the decision to tackle the ethical dilemmas at an early stage. "It's time we started thinking about the issues of how to take ethical theory and build it into the software that will ensure robots act correctly rather than wait until it's too late," he said.

"We already have computers out there that are making decisions that affect people's lives but they do it in an ethically blind way. Computers decide on credit card approvals without any human involvement and we're seeing it in some situations regarding medical care for the elderly," a reference to hospitals in the US that use computer programmes to help decide which patients should not be resuscitated if they fall unconscious.

Dr Allen said the US military wants fully autonomous robots because they currently use highly trained manpower to operate them. "The really expensive robots are under the most human control because they can't afford to lose them," he said.

"It takes six people to operate a Predator drone round the clock. I know the Air Force has developed software, which they claim is to train Predator operators. But if the computer can train the human it could also ultimately fly the drone itself."

Some are concerned that it will be impossible to devise robots that avoid mistakes, conjuring up visions of machines killing indiscriminately when they malfunction, like the robot in the film Robocop.

Noel Sharkey, a computer scientist at Sheffield University, best known for his involvement with the cult television show Robot Wars, is the leading critic of the US plans.

He says: "It sends a cold shiver down my spine. I have worked in artificial intelligence for decades, and the idea of a robot making decisions about human termination is terrifying."