Armed drones are pilot- less aircrafts equipped with air-to-ground missiles. They can hover over their target for hours before striking suddenly. Pilots steer them and fire mis- siles using remote control, sit- ting in front of video monitors. During a C.I.A. mission over Pakistan, a pilot could be as far away as Nevada. The ultimate purpose of drone strikes is to kill terror suspects who pose a threat to the United States’ national security. However, President Obama acknowledg- es that drones have also killed civilians. Yet Obama will con- tinue to use drone strikes as his Administration’s primary form of counter-terror. While drone strikes have been somewhat ef- fective in taking out terrorist threats, their negative ethical implications far outweigh their benefits.
Drone warfare is extremely detrimental for drone pilots. Because drone pilots are thou- sands of miles removed from their targets, the process is desensitizing. A drone pilot could be asked to fly surveil- lance in one country in the morning and bomb another in the afternoon. The act of hit- ting the kill button can have very real psychological costs that are often taken lightly by the Air Force.
In addition to causing men- tal harm to pilots in the United States, drones kill far more civilians than legitimate ter- rorist suspects. Pakistan has absorbed some four hundred drone strikes since 2004, more than any other country. How- ever, only a mere two percent of those who die from United States drone strikes are high- level terror suspects. As for the other ninety-eight percent,
the Obama Administration has made it extremely hard to de- termine who is a civilian and who is not. The Administra- tion classifies every male from ages eighteen to sixty as a ter- rorist, regardless of evidence.
Furthermore, many drone strikes kill women and chil- dren. The United States Gov- ernment has even deliber- ately and unintentionally targeted wedding celebrations. The most devastating aspect of these drones is an implement- ed technique known as “double tapping.” This is when a drone bombs a target, waits a few mo- ments, and then circles back to kill the first responders as they rush to help the victims. The “guilty until proven innocent” culture that the United States has forced onto Pakistan and other countries in the Middle East needs to come to an end.
Drone strikes evidently make the United States less safe. When a drone strike hits a wedding and kills in- nocent civilians, it creates a culture of fear and hatred to- ward America. Drone strikes in the Middle East are causing more people than usual to hate America and join radical mili- tant groups. In order for the tragic implications of drone strikes to be mitigated, drone warfare needs to be reformed. There needs to be specific pro- tocol that outlines when it is absolutely necessary to use a drone strike. Civilians should not have to live in fear because the United States Air Force got a hunch wrong. Also, Congress needs to improve its oversight of drone strikes and make sure they are being used ethically. In short, the unethi- cal and ineffectiveness of drone strikes need to be considered more widely because, as of right now, they are doing far more harm than good.