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Drone Warfare

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Today’s society is driven by technology and its advancement. Often times the driving force behind major technological breakthroughs is military research and development. New military inventions offer a great deal to society, to include GPS, computers, and even duct tape. However, with the evolution of technology, war has become increasingly more technologically dependent. The new age of warfare offers many benefits, as it attempts to limit some of the inherent chaos of war, but it also conjures more questions regarding the morality of war. The use of drone strikes is an example of where new technology blurs the line between warfare effectiveness and morally justification. Drone warfare, as it is being used in our current irregular war, is not justified as it violates jus in bello and is also considered morally wrong according to …show more content…

Thus, this leads the targets to be identified solely on information gathered from outside sources or from surveillance from the drone. This in itself possesses a great risk as there is a lot possibility for error in identifying the wrong person. But, even assuming correct identification of the target, these strikes often target the residences of high ranking militant leaders. By targeting households the “every reasonable effort” to discriminate between legitimate and illegitimate targets criteria is not being met. This is because there was no warning to the possible family members who most likely reside in the home as well. Estimates from three different reporting agencies averaged to 3,852 people being killed by strikes and 476 of them being civilians in Pakistan since 2004 (NY Times). Although the numbers vary widely, in principle, by not giving a reasonable effort to distinguish between the civilians and militants in these cases violates the rule of discrimination and non-combatant

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