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Drone: Remote Control Warfare
Drone warfare described from the perspectives of drone operators, victims of drone attacks, anti-drone activists, international law, military thinkers, and others. "[A] thoughtful examination of the dilemmas this new weapon poses."
— Foreign Affairs Drones are changing the conduct of war. Deployed at presidential discretion, they can be used in regular war zones or to kill people in such countries as Yemen and Somalia, where the United States is not officially at war. Advocates say that drones are more precise than conventional bombers, allowing warfare with minimal civilian deaths while keeping American pilots out of harm's way. Critics say that drones are cowardly and that they often kill innocent civilians while terrorizing entire villages on the ground. In this book, Hugh Gusterson explores the significance of drone warfare from multiple perspectives, drawing on accounts by drone operators, victims of drone attacks, anti-drone activists, human rights activists, international lawyers, journalists, military thinkers, and academic experts. Gusterson examines the way drone warfare has created commuter warriors and redefined the space of the battlefield. He looks at the paradoxical mix of closeness and distance involved in remote is it easier than killing someone on the physical battlefield if you have to watch onscreen? He suggests a new way of understanding the debate over civilian casualties of drone attacks. He maps “ethical slippage” over time in the Obama administration's targeting practices. And he contrasts Obama administration officials' legal justification of drone attacks with arguments by international lawyers and NGOs.
— Foreign Affairs Drones are changing the conduct of war. Deployed at presidential discretion, they can be used in regular war zones or to kill people in such countries as Yemen and Somalia, where the United States is not officially at war. Advocates say that drones are more precise than conventional bombers, allowing warfare with minimal civilian deaths while keeping American pilots out of harm's way. Critics say that drones are cowardly and that they often kill innocent civilians while terrorizing entire villages on the ground. In this book, Hugh Gusterson explores the significance of drone warfare from multiple perspectives, drawing on accounts by drone operators, victims of drone attacks, anti-drone activists, human rights activists, international lawyers, journalists, military thinkers, and academic experts. Gusterson examines the way drone warfare has created commuter warriors and redefined the space of the battlefield. He looks at the paradoxical mix of closeness and distance involved in remote is it easier than killing someone on the physical battlefield if you have to watch onscreen? He suggests a new way of understanding the debate over civilian casualties of drone attacks. He maps “ethical slippage” over time in the Obama administration's targeting practices. And he contrasts Obama administration officials' legal justification of drone attacks with arguments by international lawyers and NGOs.
209 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 13, 2016
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March 21, 2026An insightful read, about the use of drones by the U.S. government. The book mainly focuses on drone use in Pakistan and the effects it has had on the people who live in the areas where the US did related drone strikes, and the drone operators who remotely fly these drones from thousands of miles away. The people, who live in areas with frequent drone use, live in a perpetual nightmare where any moment, a bomb can just be dropped on you, or someone you love, and the PTSD that the people in these communities have. It also explores the cognitive dissonance that the drone pilots deal with, as they will spend hours and hours watching targets from a few miles above their head without the targets knowing, will drop a bomb on them, and then drive to their kids soccer practice a few hours later, and the toll this takes on them.
It was also interesting to hear about the drone pilots talking about the innocent civilians who have been killed during a strike that they executed, one of the guys talked about how their s three second delay in between when you press the trigger for the bomb, and when it launches form the drone, and how the pilots are just hoping that nobody walks towards targeted area in that brief time. And one of the pilots talks about the two times where some on did enter the target area, one was an old man who had walked down the street right after he had press the trigger, and he watched in horror as he stopped right in the targeted area.
The book also highlights the fact that the US government downplays the civilians deaths that occur during theses drone strikes and that the precision that government officials touts as justification for using drones is false, since their not nearly as precise as they claim.
The legal reasons for the use of drones takes up the last part of the book, and it was interesting to see how the Obama administration argued so strongly for the legality of drones to be used, and how drones before 9\11 weren’t really allowed due to a no Assisi action rule imposed on the CIA but use of drones for targeted strikes against foreign terrorists or US citizens abroad isn’t considered assassinations, even if their names are on a kill list. I thought the arguments the administration made for the legal and moral use of drones was nonsensical. I especially liked that the book mentions it would be inconceivable for the US to operate drones to kill terrorists in places like Franc or the UK, but will do so in places it deems inferior like Libya or Pakistan.
It was also interesting to hear about the drone pilots talking about the innocent civilians who have been killed during a strike that they executed, one of the guys talked about how their s three second delay in between when you press the trigger for the bomb, and when it launches form the drone, and how the pilots are just hoping that nobody walks towards targeted area in that brief time. And one of the pilots talks about the two times where some on did enter the target area, one was an old man who had walked down the street right after he had press the trigger, and he watched in horror as he stopped right in the targeted area.
The book also highlights the fact that the US government downplays the civilians deaths that occur during theses drone strikes and that the precision that government officials touts as justification for using drones is false, since their not nearly as precise as they claim.
The legal reasons for the use of drones takes up the last part of the book, and it was interesting to see how the Obama administration argued so strongly for the legality of drones to be used, and how drones before 9\11 weren’t really allowed due to a no Assisi action rule imposed on the CIA but use of drones for targeted strikes against foreign terrorists or US citizens abroad isn’t considered assassinations, even if their names are on a kill list. I thought the arguments the administration made for the legal and moral use of drones was nonsensical. I especially liked that the book mentions it would be inconceivable for the US to operate drones to kill terrorists in places like Franc or the UK, but will do so in places it deems inferior like Libya or Pakistan.
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