Drone wars: risks and warnings.

Unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs) are the wonder weapons oftoday's wars. UCAVs happenfor you to be credited together with striking the particular convoycarrying Moammar Qaddafi; killingal Qaeda's Abu Yahya al Libi andAnwar al Awlaki; eviscerating the actual Taliban's ranks andothermilitants inside the Afghanistan and Pakistan (AfPak) theater; as well as hittingtargets comingfrom Asia in order to Africa--all with out putting pilots in harm'sway.

The drone revolution promises many benefits, nevertheless you will find also drawbacks to thisnascent unmanned air force--drawbacks in which few policymakers possess contemplated. Only asdrone detractors require to acknowledge what UCAVs bring for the table, UCAV advocates requireto acknowledge the particular negative implications involving drone warfare.

Today along with Tomorrow

Whatever one's take a glance at UCAVs, your appeal of drones is understandable. Since an AirForce statement concludes, drones "are not limited simply by human performance or perhapsphysiological characteristics ... extreme persistence as well as maneuverability are usually intrinsicbenefits." (1) Throughout other words, drones could handle what humans cannot--G forcesand speed, tedium as well as boredom. Amongst one other "intrinsic benefits" associated withdrones: these people deprive the actual enemy of human targets; they don't acquire fatigued oreven thirsty or even hungry; they're relatively inexpensive; and with the coming involving nuclear-powered drones, that they offer the possibility involving practically endless above-target operation.

It is certainly not any surprise, then, which drones tend to be starting to dislodge manned aircraftfrom the crucial role they've got played in warfighting since world War II. Contemplate a quantity ofthe evidence:

* Generally there continues for you to be a new 1,200-percent increase in combat air patrolsbydrones since 2005. (2)

* Throughout the past decade, your US drone fleet features swelled from 50 planes to 7,500, thoughyour vast majority of those drones usually are usually not UCAVs. (3) Still, drones represent 31 % ofthe Pentagon's air fleet. (4)

* America's unmanned air force--including drones deployed by the military and the CIA--has strucktargets within Pakistan, Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia, and the Philippines. (5) UCAVstend to be so central to US efforts in Afghanistan and also Pakistan in which a few observers havedubbed this front with the antiterror marketing campaign "the drone war."

* Referring for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, then-Joint Chiefs Chairman Admiral Michael Mullendeclared shortly before he retired, "There are those in which begin to determine the JSF since thelast manned fighter or fighter-bomber." Raising greater than a couple of eyebrows, he added, "I'mone that's inclined to trust that." (6)

Two factors are usually accelerating the employment associated with drones: the public's growingdistaste pertaining to US casualties and the Pentagon's shrinking share in the budget. regarding theformer, it's good to recall the American people's tolerance pertaining to casualties offers waxed andwaned over the decades. They Will obviously have had a substantial threshold pertaining to

casualties at times. Regarding example, despite way higher casualty amounts when compared withrecent conflicts, public assistance remained substantial throughout Globe War II and during muchinvolving Vietnam. However, which changed dramatically after Vietnam. The Actual outcome wasobviously a quarter-century of push-button, almost-bloodless wars (at least pertaining toAmericans), each conditioning the American folks to expect much less bloodshed than the previousconflict. This, throughout turn, conditioned political as well as military leaders to be able todeliver more push-button, bloodless wars. the 9/11 attacks briefly broke this cycle, owning animpact on the American public not really dissimilar through the attack upon Pearl Harbor.Contemplate any CNN poll conducted after 9/11 asking Americans when they would assistancemilitary action even when it meant 5,000 American troops will be killed. As any symbol of their owngrim, if ephemeral, determination, 76 percent mentioned yes. (7)

Of course, these attitudes have shifted, predictably, during what one observer calls "the wars of9/11." (8) Terrain wars in Afghanistan and also Iraq are already lengthy and costly, together with4,485 American troops killed throughout Iraq and also more than 2,147 killed within the still-unfinished Afghanistan war, America's longest shooting war. Inside the actual wake of Iraq alongwith Afghanistan, it will be no coincidence which UCAVs are generally playing a central role insideUS military operations as Americans grow weary of war's toll. Instead involving putting boots on theground inside Libya, for example, Washington unleashed swarms of drones. Throughout fact, theactual missiles that hit Qaddafi's escaping convoy were fired not by simply an artillerymanmarching by means of the actual desert or perhaps an F-18 pilot prowling overhead, however with aremote-control warrior sitting inside the safety involving a nondescript creating outside Las Vegas.(9) Annual drone strikes in Pakistan elevated through one inch 2004 to 117 inside 2010, when theypeaked. (10) The Particular Brookings Institution estimates which as much as 2,769 militants havebeen killed by simply UCAV strikes within Pakistan. (11) Today, your frequency and ferocityinvolving US drone strikes throughout Yemen are generally next the same escalating trajectory thatwill characterized your drone war in Pakistan.

As for the Pentagon's diminishing share of the budget,"Drones, Not Really Marines" blared 1headline right after PresidentBarack Obama unveiled his policy for scaling-back the particular USmilitary.Defending the particular president's vision of the smaller military, Your NewYork timesassured its viewers that "Many involving the contests outthere may be dealt with simply by airpower, intelligence, unique operationsor innovative technologies just like drones." (12)

Media outlets tend to be obtaining their own cues from the Pentagon. "As we reduce the overallprotection budget," outgoing defense Secretary Leon Panetta explained, "we will protect, and in aamount of cases increase, our investments in particular operations forces, in technologies like ...unmanned systems." (13) Similarly, an Air Force statement suggests that drones promote "thewisest use associated with tax dollars." (14) A typical Predator drone, pertaining to instance, costs$4.5 million, whilst an F-35 costs $159 million, an F-22 $377 million, plus a B-2 practically $2billion. Moreover, coaching UCAV controllers is cheaper than the particular usual tenth whatit costs to coach standard combat aviators. (15)

In short, your emergence regarding an unmanned air force can be some distance away:

* Furthermore to be able to its growing fleet involving reconnaissance and surveillance drones, yourArmy's Grey Eagle/Sky Warrior drone--sharing bloodlines with the Predator--has been deployedthroughout Iraq and Afghanistan. The Actual Army is asking business partners to develop a small,hand-launched drone that can strike targets 6 miles away. (16)

* Your Navy can be testing any carrier-borne UCAV, the particular X-47B, that is being place

through its paces aboard your USS Harry S. Truman. (Related, the Navy is also creating missile-laden robot warships, such as the unmanned surface vessel precision engagement module.)

* Air Force envisions deploying swarms associated with drones networked together for you to"operate in the selection involving lethal along with non-lethal missions at the actual command of asingle pilot" (17)--as many as 5 drones per pilot. (18)

* Air Force wants America's next-generation bomber, the Long Range Strike bomber, being"optionally manned."

* UCAVs designed with "target-recognition systems" and "autonomous attack systems" are on thehorizon. (19)

* the Pentagon plans to double your drone fleet through 2020, since the size of the particularmanned bomber and also fighter force shrinks. (20)

* Within 2011, the particular Air Force trained much more pilots for you to fly drones thanfighterand bomber pilots combined. (21) the Air Force Academy class of2011 has been the first in order tograduate cadets together with specialties in operatingdrones.

In fact, "Hundreds associated with Air Force pilots are transitioning to drones through classicmanned aircraft," according to an F-15E pilot interviewed with regard to this essay. An Air ForceAcademy graduate using 20 years within the Air Force, such as a massive assortment of hrs ofcombat, the particular pilot concedes he will be biased if this will come for the drone debate,before adding, "Many in the veteran pilots I realize that transitioned to drones were effectivelyforced there by getting couple of desirable alternatives." (22)

An Air Force record on drones concedes that will rise in demand for unmanned methods featurescreated relying in "experienced pilots" to fly drones "unsustainable." (23) Thus the particular AirForce will be tasking personnel without flight experience in order to drone operations, developinga pilot profession area with specialized drone coaching "distinct from current manned aircraft pilottraining" along with planning for you to task multiple drones to some single operator. (24)Throughout addition, the particular Air Force envisions programs that will improve use of"computer-based training and also virtual instruction.... The Actual goal will probably be tomaneuver all Air Force UAS [unmanned aircraft systems] coaching programs in order to accomplish75 percent of most coaching by means of self-study, allowing virtual instructors to introduce andpractice mission duties with students." (25) In other words, not only will the particular planes beunmanned and also automated, therefore will the training.

War, as Michael Walzer observes, can be "a human motion ... for whose outcomes someone will beresponsible." (26) But who is held responsible each period a UAV or perhaps UCAV goes AWOL?This is not precisely a rare occurrence. AWOL drones get crashed inside eastern Iran, collidedwith cargo planes, smashed straight into Djibouti neighborhoods, as well as veered so dangerouslyoff course along with uncontrollable that manned jets have got been dispatched in order to destroythem. The Environment Force concedes what has Predator, Reaper, along with Global Hawk dronescrash greater than every other aircraft--nine are lost for each 100,000 hours flown. (27) And Alsosounding a lot more like a sci-fi newspaper when in comparison to be able to a newspaper, TheParticular Washington Publish reports that a Predator based in Djibouti "started its engine withouthaving any kind of human direction, even though your ignition have been turned off as well as thefuel lines closed." (28)

In short, drones have real technological limitations. These limitations, it seems, will only end upbeing amplified as (a) growing numbers of nonpilots take the controls as well as (b) each along withevery drone operator is actually shouldered with an growing variety of platforms to operate.However, which is not stopping Washington from deploying much more and more of thosewonder weapons.

More willing in order to Use

As Michael Ignatieff questioned in 2000, many years before the drone war began, "If war getsunreal to the citizens associated with modern democracies, will that they care sufficient to becomeable to restrain along with control the particular violence exercised inside their name ... wheneverthey and their sons as well as daughters are spared your hazards regarding combat?" (29) That Willquestion to suit your own needs is directly linked for you to policymakers in the drone age. Yourrisks policymakers take with UCAVs are usually greater because the accountability is actually underwith manned aircraft. Following all, the loss of your drone may become the loss regardingnothing more as compared to metal. "More willing to shed is more willing to use," as DanielHaulman in the Air Force Historical research Agency puts it. (30) yet as America's deepeninginvolvement in Yemen underscores, drones could truly make boots-on-the-ground intervention morelikely. For You To identify new targets along with authenticate current targets for your drone war,Washington features quietly sent US troops straight into Yemen. According to end up being able tounnamed military officials, your contingent associated with American troops is growing. (31) Sinceyour troops identify targets, that they become targets. Thus, far from preventing a lot moreimmediate and riskier types of military engagement, drones are usually encouraging suchengagement--even as many of their operators paradoxically carry out their lethal missions from thesafety of bases throughout Nevada or New Mexico.

Make no mistake: this can always be a a beneficial thing for your airmen held away from harm;however, it may be considered a a harmful thing with regard to our republic. becauseUCAVs remove humans in the battlespace, they will remove the unique characteristics humansbring towards the battlespace: deliberation, doubt, fear, gut instinct, as well as judgment. We wanthumans inside the battlespace, in harm's way, not only because humans create far better judgmentsthan machines--judgment can be a extremely human action--but because having humans in thebattlespace may help the commander-in-chief help to make better judgments about when, where,and if they will should wage war. Your temptation to gain all the great things about kinetic militaryoperations along with no costs, consequences, or risks may become also strong for your Executivebranch to resist. Perhaps when the Executive's inclination toward war can be not new--recallMadison's letter to always be able to Jefferson noting how "the Executive will be the branchassociated with power the majority of interested in war and the lot prone to it"--the prospectassociated with risk-free war afforded through pilotless planes is. (32)

This may be decades within the making, associated with course. Through world War II to DesertStorm towards the war about terror, the particular Usa has grown adept at striking its enemies withescalating amounts involving precision and decreasing ranges of danger to people pulling the actualtrigger. Yet UCAVs erase the risk. And Also without having it, there is one much less check onthe commander-in-chief's war-making power. President Obama, for instance, features employeddrones within Libya, Somalia, Yemen, Pakistan, and Iran inside ways he provides not--and arguablywould not--employ manned aircraft. Your political cost at home--and diplomatic fallout abroad--is high whenever a commander-in-chief loses a new pilot, nevertheless negligible whena commander-in-chief loses any pilotless drone. Only compare the particular nonreaction to losing

drones inside Djibouti, Iran, as well as the Seychelles below the Obama administration using thebona fide crises various other presidents faced when US pilots were shot down over or perhapsclose to enemy territory. President Dwight Eisenhower weathered international humiliation afterthe Soviets brought down Francis Powers' U-2. President John Kennedy was pressed for you to goto war when Rudolf Anderson's U-2 ended up being shot down during the Cuban Missile Crisis.President Bill Clinton had to offer with a hostage crisis abroad and a political crisis in the homewhen Michael Durant's UH-60 Blackhawk has been shot down throughout Mogadishu, and which hewas forced to mount any enormous rescue operation directly into hostile territory when ScottO'Grady's F-16 was shot down in Bosnia. Inside sum, the absence or even presence of US personnelin a military operation dramatically changes the calculus of war.

Not only do UCAVs lower the actual threshold pertaining to going to war, these people also mayensure it is much easier to keep wars going, as Paul Miller, a former National Security Councilofficial, observes. Noting that "endless war is unacceptable and also dangerous," Miller argues theinstitution of the presidency requirements to answer an essential question: "When, and under whatconditions, will the actual U.S. government stop using drones to bomb suspected terrorists aroundthe world?" (33)

Thanks in order to drones, as Miller's query suggests, "endless war" is actually very possible. Withinthis regard, it's really worth noting that the drone war is an outgrowth regarding Washington'spost-9/11 campaign against terrorist organizations and also regimes--a campaign authorized by theUse of Force Resolution associated with 18 September 2001. Which measure directed the president"to make use associated with all necessary as well as proper force against those nations,organizations or persons he determines planned, authorized, dedicated or perhaps aided theterrorist attacks which occurred on September 11, 2001, or perhaps harbored such organizations orperhaps persons, throughout order to avoid just about any future acts regarding internationalterrorism against the United States by simply such nations, organizations as well as persons." (34)

That final clause referring for you to "future acts associated with international terrorism" producesa loophole larger than a Reaper ground-attack drone--with the wingspan of several 66 feet--aloophole which should be tightened through legislation focusing on threats beyondAfghanistan. After all, it could be considered a stretch in order to say that the particular 18September measure authorized--11-plus many years later--an autopilot war against targetsin Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, as well as beyond. These targets could indeed be enemies of, as wellas threats to, the actual United States. Yet few of the drone war's intended targets today--not tocover the actual unfortunates simply in the wrong place from the wrong time--"planned,authorized, committed or even aided your terrorist attacks which occurred upon September11, 2001." Underscoring this point,

The Washington post just lately reported which any developing range of drone strikes within Yemenget targeted "lower-level figures who are suspected of having hyperlinks in order to terrorismoperatives but you are seen mainly as leaders regarding factions focused on attaining territoryinside Yemen's internal struggle." (35) (Emphasis added.) yet the drone war goes on, largely simplybecause there aren't any Americans throughout harm's way--at least not directly.

Developing a Complex

If we debate that drone pilots aren't inside the battlespace, which seems reasonable considering theextremely fact that the majority of of these are usually 7,500 miles from the enemy, it invites goodfriend and foe alike to draw an unsettling conclusion about American power. An example fromhistory could always be helpful.

Amid the actual Allied bombing raids about Germany following Globe War II, British physicistPatrick Blackett worried that will London and Washington had developed a "Jupiter Complex,"which historian Paul Johnson describes as "the notion in the Allies as righteous gods, rainingretributive thunderbolts on their own wicked enemies." The Allies concluded, as Johnson explains,which strategic bombing "was the actual simplest way to make the most use involving theirparticular vast economic resources, while suffering the minimal manpower losses." (36)

UCAVs consider the logic with the Jupiter Complex to its ultimate conclusion--maximum use ofeconomic and also technological sources with zero manpower losses as well as zero risks--allbuffered through the virtual-reality nature in the delivery system. Just consider The Brand NameNew York Times depiction in the inner workings with the drone war, which usuallydescribes President Obama as "at the particular helm of a top-secret 'nominations' method in orderto designate terrorists regarding kill or capture," authorizing every strike throughout Yemen andalso Somalia and "the more complex and also dangerous strikes in Pakistan," often deciding"personally whether or perhaps not necessarily to go ahead" using a drone strike, and acceding intoa technique for tallying civilian casualties that will "in effect counts all military-age males in a strikezone as combatants ... unless there's explicit intelligence posthumously proving them innocent."(37)

The outcomes aren't for the squeamish. the Brookings Institution estimates that, together using the2,700-plus militants killed by drones in Pakistan, a range of 400 nonmilitants may happen to alwaysbe able to be killed. (38) The Particular use of drones to be able to cripple al Awlaki's Yemenibranch of al Qaeda killed dozens regarding people, many of these apparently not necessarilyaffiliated along with al Qaeda, including a 16-year-old relative of al Awlaki born within Denver. (39)(This incident raises due-process questions, just since the proliferation of drones deployeddomestically raises Fourth Amendment concerns, however that is at night scope involving thisarticle.)

In short, it seems like Washington continues in order to be seduced from the Jupiter Complex.Becoming seen in such a light--as detached as well as remote throughout every sense of the word,particularly in waging war--should give Americans pause. "Reliance in drone strikes enables ouropponents in order to cast our country as getting a distant, high-tech, amoral purveyor regardingdeath," argues Kurt Volker, former US ambassador to NATO. "It builds resentment, facilitatesterrorist recruitment and alienates individuals we should seek to inspire." (40) Indeed, what appearsan effective counterterrorism campaign to Americans might look very different for you tointernational observers. "In 17 associated with twenty countries," any latest Pew surveyfound, "more than half disapprove regarding U.S. drone attacks targeting extremist leaders alongwith groups inside nations such as Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia." (41) Moreover, a new UN officiallately announced plans to create "an investigation unit" inside the Human Legal Rights Council to"inquire directly into individual drone attacks ... where it has been alleged that civilian casualtieshave been inflicted." (42)

This is never to claim that either side in the drone debate features a monopoly on the moral highground; each have got honorable motives. UCAV advocates want to employ drone technologies to beable to limit US casualties, while UCAV opponents are involved in which these exact sametechnologies could make war as well an simple job to wage. This underscores there exists absolutelyno simple solution for the drone dilemma. Converting to some fully unmanned air force wouldalways be dangerous. Putting your UCAV genie back within the bottle, on the other hand, would bedifficult, perhaps impossible.

There are usually those who debate that it can end up being a false dichotomy to saythat policymakers must pick in between UCAVs and also manned aircraft. In Order To besure, UCAVs could function as a complement to always be able to manned aircraft rather thana replacement, together with pilots inside the battlespace wielding UCAVs in order toaugment their capabilities. In Which really does not, however, appear being exactly where weare headed. Contemplate Admiral Mullen's remarks concerning the sunset of manned combataircraft, the actual manned-versus-unmanned acquisition trajectories, the particular remote-controlwars throughout Pakistan along with Yemen and also Somalia, and President Obama's attachmentto UCAVs. Earlier this year, for instance, when France inquired with regard to assist in itscounterassault against jihadists inside Mali, Washington initially offered drones. (43) The Actualnext president will most likely comply with and develop upon the particular UCAV precedentsset during the Obama administration, just as the Obama administration has with the particularUCAV precedents set through the Bush administration. Recall that the initial shot in the drone warhas been fired approximately 11 a prolonged time ago, in Yemen, whenever a CIA Predator droneretrofitted together with Hellfire missiles targeted and also killed one of your planners of the USSCole attack.

Given his or her record along with expanding capabilities, it seems like unlikely that UCAVs willever be renounced entirely; however, maybe the utilization of drones pertaining to lethal purposescan be curtailed or perhaps no much less than contained. This is important for you to recall the Usaprovides circumscribed its own military power in the past through drawing the series in certaintechnologies. The united States halted growth along with development of your neutron bomb insidethe 1970s and dismantled its neutron arsenal in the 2000s; agreed to forswear chemical weapons;and also renounced biological warfare "for the particular sake of all mankind." (44)

That brings us again to The brand New York Times' portrait of the drone war. Washington has foryou to be mindful in which the planet is actually watching. This is not really an argumentthroughout defense regarding international watchdogs tying America down. Your UN secretariatmay refuse for you to recognize America's special role, nevertheless simply by looking atWashington whenever civil war breaks out, or nuclear weapons sprout up, or even sea lanes tend tobe threatened, as well as natural disasters wreak havoc, or perhaps genocide is actually permit

loose, it really is tacitly conceding that your united States is, well, special. Washington has everyproper to kill these that are attempting to kill Americans. However, your brewing internationalbacklash contrary for you to the drone war reminds us which means and methods make thedifference around ends.

Error War

If these geo-political consequences associated with remote-control war do not get our attention,then your looming geo-strategic consequences should. If we result throughout the argument thatUCAV pilots tend to be inside the battlespace, then we are efficiently saying that your battlespacemay be the entire earth. In the event that that is the case, the unintended consequences could bedramatic.

First, in the big event the battlespace may always be the entire earth, the actual enemy wouldseem to hold the right in order to wage war about individuals places exactly where UCAV operatorsare based. That's a sobering thought, one few policymakers have contemplated.

Second, power-projecting nations are generally subsequent America's lead and developing theirreally own drones in order to target their own distant enemies by remote.

An estimated 75 countries have got drone applications underway. (45) Many of these nations aremuch less discriminating throughout employing military force than the particular United States--andmuch less skillful. Indeed, drones might usher throughout a new age of accidental wars. In theparticular event that your best drones deployed from the best military crash more than some otheraircraft inside America's fleet, imagine the particular accident rate regarding mediocre dronesdeployed by mediocre militaries. And Also then think of the international incidents thiscould trigger between, say, India and also Pakistan; North along with South Korea; Russia and yourBaltics or Poland or even Georgia; China and then for any number of its wary neighbors.

China features a minimum of 1 dozen drones about the drawing board or even in production, andhas announced promises to dot its coastline along with 11 drone bases in the next a couple of years.(46) the Pentagon's recent reviews on Chinese military power detail "acquisition and alsodevelopment of longer-range UAVs as well as UCAVs ... pertaining to long-range reconnaissanceand strike"; progression of UCAVs to end up being able to enable "a higher capacity for militarypreemption"; as well as curiosity about "converting retired fighter aircraft into unmanned combataerial vehicles." (47) From a 2011 air show, Beijing showcased among its newest drones throughplaying a video demonstrating a new pilotless plane tracking a new US aircraft carrier near Taiwanand also relaying targeting information. (48)

Equally worrisome, the proliferation of drones could enable nonpower-projecting nations--andnonnations, regarding that matter--to join the ranks regarding power-projecting nations. Drones area low-cost alternative to long-range, long-endurance warplanes. But despite their particular lowercost, drones can pack the punch. and owing with their size along with range, they're able toconceal their home address way much more successfully compared to become able to the typical,nonstealthy manned warplane. Recall that the possible for surprise attack by drones ended upbeing cited in order to justify the actual war against Saddam Hussein's Iraq. (49)

Of course, cutting-edge UCAVs possess not fallen into undeterrable hands. but if history is any kindof guide, they will. Such is the nature of proliferation. Also if the spread involving UCAVtechnologies will not harm the United States inside a direct way, it isn't likely in which opposingswarms of semiautonomous, pilotless warplanes roaming about the earth, striking at will, veering

off course, crashing here and also there, and often simply failing to react with their remote-controlpilots is going in order to do a lot to promote a liberal global order.

It will be ironic when the promise of risk-free war offered by drones spawned a fresh era associatedwith danger for your united States and also its allies.

(1) US Air Force, United States Involving America Air Force Unmanned Aircraft Systems Flight plan2009-2047 (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of the Air Force, May 18, 2009), 15.

(2) "Flight in the drones," Your Economist, October 8, 2011.

(3) "Predator Drones and also Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)," the New York Times, October 21,2011, http://topics.nytimes.com.

(4) Spencer Ackerman as well as Noah Shachtman, "Almost One In 3 U.S. Warplanes is a newRobot," Wired Danger Room, January 9, 2012.

(5) Karen DeYoung, "Secrecy defines Obama's drone war," Your Washington Post, December 19,2011; Mark Mazzetti, "The Drone Zone," the New York Times, July 6, 2012.

(6) "Last Manned Aircraft?" Air Force Magazine, Might 18, 2009.

(7) Jeffrey M. Jones, "Support Remains high Even if Military Action is Prolonged, InvolvesCasualties," Gallup Information Service, October 4, 2001, http://www.gallup.com.

(8) Simon Serfaty, "The United States, the European Union and NATO: Following your Cold War andBeyond Iraq," Middle regarding Strategic and International Research (CSIS) (Washington DC: CSIS,June 15, 2005).

(9) Thomas Harding, "Col. Gaddafi killed: convoy bombed by drone flown by pilot within Las Vegas,"The Particular London Telegraph, October 20, 2011.

(10) Ian S. Livingston and Michael O'Hanlon, Pakistan Index: Tracking Variables regardingReconstruction & Safety (Washington DC: Brookings, December 29, 2011), 6-8.

(11) Ian S. Livingston and also Michael O'Hanlon, Afghanistan Index: Monitoring Progress and alsosecurity inside Post-9/11 Afghanistan (Washington DC: Brookings, December 13, 2012), 32.

(12) "A leaner Pentagon," The Manufacturer New York Times, January 5, 2012.

(13) US Department involving Defense, "Defense Strategic Guidance Briefing from the Pentagon,"(Washington DC: Workplace involving the Assistant Secretary regarding Protection (Public Affairs)news Transcript), January 5, 2012, http://www.defense.gov.

(14) US Air Force Unmanned Aircraft Techniques Flight Program 2009-2047, 15.

(15) "Flight in the drones."

(16) Spencer Ackerman, "Army wants Tiny Suicidal Drone for you to Kill From 6 Miles Away," WiredDanger Room, September 10, 2012, http://www.wired.com.

(17) US Air Force Unmanned Aircraft systems Flight Strategy 2009-2047, 39.

(18) Andrea Shalal-Esa along with Tim Hepher, "Future drone pilots may fly 4 warplanes with once,"Reuters, December 24, 2011.

(19) Max Boot, War made New: Weapons, Warriors, as well as the Generating of the Modern world(New York: Penguin, 2006), 440-441; Shalal-Esa and Hepher., "Future drone drones pilots."

(20) David Axe, "Pentagon looks to end up being able to double its unmanned air force," Wired.com,Could 31, 2011, http://www.wired.com.

(21) Elisabeth Bumiller and also Thom Shanker, "War evolves with drones, a number of tiny asbugs," the New York Times, June 19, 2011.

(22) Confidential interview conducted November 28, 2011; your name of interviewee can bewithheld by mutual agreement.

(23) U.S. Air force Unmanned Aircraft Methods Flight Plan 2009-2047, 28.

(24) Ibid., 28; Rachel Martin, "Drone pilots: the future of aerial warfare," NPR, November 29,2011.

(25) US Air Force Unmanned Aircraft Methods Flight Program 2009-2047, 82

(26) Michael Walzer, Simply and also Unjust Wars: Any Moral Argument With HistoricalIllustrations (New York: Fundamental Books, 1977), 15.

(27) Carlo Munoz, "Report: Drones best list of accident-prone aircraft within Air Force," Your Hill,June 18, 2012.

(28) Craig Whitlock, "Remote U.S. base in core regarding secret operations," The ActualWashington Post, October 25, 2012.

(29) Michael Ignatieff, Virtual War: Kosovo along with Beyond (New York: Picador Books, 2000), 4.

(30) Daniel L. Haulman, "U.S. Unmanned Vehicles inside Combat, 1991-2003" June 9, 2003,http://www.dtic.mil.

(31) "U.S. escalates clandestine war throughout Yemen," Los Angeles Times, may 16, 2012.

(32) Cited in James A. Curry, Richard D. Riley, Richard M. Battiston, Constitutional Government:The Particular American Encounter (New York: West Publishing, 1989), 157.

(33) Paul D. Miller, "When will the actual U.S. drone war end?" The Washington Post, November 17,2011.

(34) Joint Resolution to Authorize the particular Use regarding United States of AmericaArmed Forces Against those Responsible for your recent Attacks Launched Against the UnitedStates, Public Law 107-40, 107th Congress, September 18, 2001, http://www.gpo.gov.

(35) Greg Miller, "U.S. drone targets inside Yemen raise questions," the Washington Post, June 2,

2012.

(36) Paul Johnson, Modern Times: The Entire World from your Twenties to become able tothe Nineties (New York: Harper Perennial, 1992), 402-403.

(37) Jo Becker and also Scott Shane, "Secret 'Kill List' Proves any Test involving Obama's Rules aswell as Will," The Manufacturer New York Times, Could 29, 2012.

(38) Livingston as well as O'Hanlon, 32.

(39) Craig Whitlock, "U.S. airstrike which killed American teen in Yemen raises legal, ethicalquestions," The Actual Washington Post, October 22, 2011.

(40) Kurt Volker, "What the particular U.S. risks simply by relying on drones," the Washington Post,October 26, 2012.

(41) Pew Analysis Global Attitudes Project, "Drone Strikes Widely Opposed, Global Opinioninvolving Obama Slips, International Policies Faulted," June 13, 2012, http://www.pewglobal.org.

(42) Colum Lynch, "U.N. for you to probe drone attacks simply by U.S., others resulting insidecivilian deaths," Your Washington Post, October 25, 2012.

(43) Rukmini Callimachi as well as Baba Ahmed, "A battle to always be able to retake north Mali:Hundreds associated with French troops drive back al-Qaida-linked rebels," Your Washington Post,January 12, 2013.

(44) US Department associated with State, Convention on the Prohibition associated withthe Development, Production along with Stockpiling involving Bacteriological (Biological) and ToxinWeapons and also on His Or Her Destruction (BWC), April 10, 1972.

(45) Jim Michaels, "Experts: Drones grounds for new global arms race," USA Today, January 8,2013.

(46) Jonathan Kaiman as well as Justin McCurry, "Japan as well as China step up drone race astension builds over disputed islands (drone skirmishes?)," Your Guardian, January 9, 2013.

(47) US Department regarding Defense, "Annual Record to Congress, Military and also securityDevelopments Involving the People's Republic of China 2011," 32; US Department regardingDefense, "Military Power of your People's Republic involving China 2007," 12; US Departmentof Defense, "Military power with the People's Republic associated with China 2005," 4.

(48) "China constructing an arm associated with unmanned military drones 'to rival the particularU.S.,'" the daily Mail, July 5, 2011.

(49) "A Policy of Evasion as well as Deception," US Secretary of State Colin Powell's speech towardsthe united Nations on Iraq, The Washington Post, February 5, 2003,http://www.washingtonpost.com.

Alan W. Dowd writes about national defense, foreign policy, and international security. Hiscomposing has appeared throughout multiple publications including Parameters, Policy Review, TheActual Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations, world Politics Review, American Outlook,

the Baltimore Sun, The Particular Washington Times, The Particular National Post, The Wall StreetJournal Europe, The Actual Jerusalem Post, and The Particular Monetary Times Deutschland.