Posted by
Corthell on Wednesday, November 25, 2009 2:35:02 PM
''Will there be new definitions of "war crimes"? But even with the YouTube wars ahead, P.W. Singer advises that "wars are complex, messy, and unpredictable. And this will remain the case even as unmanned systems increasingly substitute for humans." But will the definition of "humans" remain the same?'' In his book, "
Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century," P.W. Singer – director of the Brookings Institute's 21st–Century Defense Initiative – describes our use of lethal pilotless drone planes in Iraq and Afghanistan by noting that the pilots directing the drones are seated before a computer in Las Vegas.
Interviewed by National Public Radio's Terry Gross (Oct. 21), Singer said, "It's like a video game." And indeed, most of these robotic systems, he added, are "modeled after the Xbox or the PlayStation," which some of the younger pilots of the drone planes in Nevada enjoyed playing as they were growing up.
But video-game drones do not leave real corpses. Jane Mayer, author of the deeply troubling article "The Predator War" (The New Yorker, Oct. 6), was also interviewed by the always vigilant and challenging Terry Gross (NPR, Oct. 21), and she asked:
"If it's a low-level militant, are we justified in killing a number of bystanders that are killed with that person? These are very morally fraught, complicated questions." Very importantly, Jane Mayer added: "And again, the process of who's making those decisions – and how – is hidden, as far as the CIA goes."
At that point, Gross asked a question that our press and Congress should be asking:
"What questions do you hope President Obama is asking himself about the drones?"
We don't know. The president hasn't told us. And I would also ask him: What if it's a high-level terrorist (I avoid euphemisms like "militants") that the drone plane has targeted? And that terrorist, as often happens, has strategically hidden himself or herself among civilians? Do our legal and moral values justify killing those civilians to prevent further killings by this wholesale murderer? http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=117069