2,305 killed by Obama in drone strikes in Pakistan by my count

[tomg]

96. While I strongly agree with

you regarding the immorality of all killing ( I am a co), the use of drones is, as mentioned, particularly insidious, death by video game. It creates the illusion - for most folks ( not for the majority at a site like DU) - that it is "only" combatants who are killed. What is more, I think, they provide a kind of a "justification," as it were. That is, no Americans are in "danger." Everytime an American helicopter goes down or a plane with Americans on it is lost, it is terrible for the loss of life and it brings to mind the war in a human sense. It recalls to Americans what they are engaged in. Everytime a drone "accidentally" wipes out a group of civilians in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen and elsewhere, the "drone" did it, not us. In a sense, it makes the machine responsible, not us. And no American lives were lost. In fact, when one protests their use, one is asked "do you want to see American die."
In a sense, from my point of view, it is similar in purpose, as morally dangerous and as politically insidious as the move to the "all-volunteer" military and the increasing use of "contractors." At every point, in allowing others - whether drones or "volunteers" or "contractors" - to act in our place, as citizens we find it increasingly easier to abnegate our moral responsibility. And, honestly, the government and the corporations like it that way, and, it seems, so do the mass of Americans.