Drone Strikes: Turning Civilians into Militants

In recent years, the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has increased dramatically. These autonomous aircraft, often called drones, are now capable of carrying powerful armaments that can be used to attack military targets without risking the safety of any pilots. While many praise the use of drones as a way of carrying out military operations without putting "boots on the ground", the ethics of drone warfare are questionable at best. It is not the lack of pilots that makes drones immoral, but rather the manner in which we use them. Drone strikes have become a routine way of eliminating so-called terrorists, in a practice called "targeted killings". A more appropriate term would be "assassinations", because these strikes are carried out against targets who have not been convicted by any court in countries against which we are not at war. The "War on Terror" has become an excuse for the United States to eliminate any political enemies that it deems a threat to "national security", which means anyone who opposes American global dominance.

Map of US drone bases, 2011

A map of US drone bases makes it clear that drones are used to protect American strategic interests, which include above all the control of the Middle East. Besides Afghanistan and Iraq, our drone strikes have spread to Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia. These countries, which are already being torn apart by internal conflicts, are now suffering even greater destruction due to our drone strikes. Although the military will claim that drone strikes are highly accurate, civilians are often killed. This fact is often hidden by an incredibly authoritarian policy used by the US government: that all able-bodied males killed in drone strikes are labeled "militants", unless later proven to be civilians. In other words, the executive branch has assumed the power to be judge, jury, and executor of the world, where everyone is guilty until proven innocent.

Even if the threat of terrorism justified these unconstitutional attacks, they are counterproductive in winning the "hearts and minds" of potential future terrorists. What better way is there to realize radical Islam's vision of America as a militaristic empire than to use flying robots that shoot missiles at innocent civilians. Besides breaking every American tradition of democracy and the rule of law, these drone strikes are playing into the hands of the so-called terrorists. As long as we try to use fear to promote our interests, it will be us who are the real terrorists.