There comes a time in a decision-making process where you
end up standing miles away from where you thought the answer to your initial decision
was going to take you. It’s not a sudden thing and ends up slowly moving you
away from where you thought you would have been before the decision. It’s like
turning around, seeing where you started miles away in the distance, and not
realizing how or when you got where you’re standing.
I feel many times this is how the American public feels
about drone warfare. At what point did we have this technology turn into
something of surveillance during times of true war, to a personal squad of
borderless and warrantless killing machines? When did we accept the right to
become judge, jury and executioner in a conflict that we’re not only fighting
in, but also antagonizing? When will we
realize that by destroying tribes of people in an unsanctioned war we’re not
making our lives any easier, but only swatting the hive for future attacks?
The “table-turning test” is a true example of eating your
own ethical dog food. If we had people within our borders attempting to do
other countries harm in a physically way, but were melted from the sky by a
third party country before they were able to, America would cause a full out
war. I understand the need to protect
our country, I understand the love of one’s country and wanting to defend it,
but I still can’t understand the murder that we’re causing across the globe
without a second thought. By loving one's country we should be concerned on how we deal with conflict in general and not just trying to eliminate conflict with more aggression.
At what point in time will the American public look back and
realize that not only are foreign enemies being targeted, but anyone who’s considered
an enemy of the state? With mass surveillance already in place the next natural
step to keep order and monitor to civilians would be by using an unseen force
that can be deployed from anywhere, to anyplace and without detection. My
concern is that future of this type of mindset, the assassination of enemies
with technology without thinking twice, would continue to dredge down to a
local level. I know there’s been talk about protecting civilians from this type
of abuse, but that’s only because they know how far an idea can spin away from
them. If this happens the American public will turn around looking for their initial
answer to their decision on drone warfare and instead of seeing in the distance
where they started from, they’ll only see the charred earth of their starting
point.
