Unaccountable Killing Machines: The True Cost of U.S. Drones

[quaker bill]

4. An opinion piece

"The enormous expansion of drone operations has been a success in the narrowest sense of killing some bad guys. But it has come at an enormous cost: to our reputation, to our morals, to our relationship and status with countries we need to work with to contain and defuse terrorism, and in the lives of the many innocent people we've killed through either sloppiness or ignorance."

I do not support the use of drones, nor do I support direct military invasion. I do however have a hard time wrapping my head around the distinction which makes one more apparently grevious than the other.

Invasions kill many innocent people through ignorance or sloppiness. Drones seem to kill fewer people, but I am sure some deaths are unintended. Both are done without the permission of the country being visited. Both come at great cost to "our reputation, to our morals, to our relationship and status with countries we need to work with to contain and defuse terrorism."

What I don't get is why "boots on the ground" would be better than drones in the air.... I do not find any one weapons system more "moral" than another. I think we should just stop killing people, regardless of the weapon used.