By: Daen de Leon

Daen de Leon — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 20:55:00 +0000

Drones aren’t even the issue here; the issue is whether the extrajudicial killing — assassination, as you put it — of individuals deemed to be detrimental to the well-being of the USA is perhaps itself detrimental to the well-being of the USA. This isn’t justice; it’s simple revenge. Justice would be about capture, trial, and sentencing. Even the Nazi high command got that, and the world was glad for it. When it becomes de rigeur to use such tools to act as judge, jury, prosecution, and executioner, then the stakes have been raised — again — and the enemies of the USA will grow in number — again — requiring the stakes to be raised even higher — again. It’s a game that can’t be won.

By: Nat Gertler

Nat Gertler — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 15:51:00 +0000

To me, the central question is not whether using drones is less damaging than an invasion; that’s a pretty simple equation, and if we’d managed to handle Saddam via drones rather than as we did, it would’ve been less costly in all significant ways than the invasion we had. The central question is whether we end up using drones instead of invasion, or whether we end up using them instead of peace. If the availability and relative ease of the tech leads us to be bringing death to innocents where there would be no attack without the tech, then we get into a darker ethical situation.

Comments on: Droning On About Drone Warfare

By: Daen de Leon

By: Nat Gertler