The Failed Decision of Weaponizing Drones

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.