The use of drones, both armed and unarmed, has been a significant development in air warfare, much to the advantage to those militaries who have them and to the chagrin of those who do not. Indeed, what greater advantage could there be than the ability to gather intelligence and even conduct bombing and missile campaign while risking only hardware and the money behind it? All is fair in love and war, of course, but the downside of drones has become a sore point to the technologically advanced recently. A report on Israel's invasion of Gaza last winter has tallied the number of civilians killed by Israeli drones. Nearly 30 victims, many of whom were children, were killed by drones, which the Israelis have touted as being extremely accurate in their attacks. Perhaps the machinery itself is quite accurate but it is the men who are controlling it and observing the ground targets through television cameras that are flawed. The US now finds itself in a similar situation as its many drone attacks on Pakistani territory are now being called into question as an inordinate number of civilians have been killed in these attacks. It is pulling back on its policy of unleashing drone attacks in Pakistan as the killing of civilians is becoming counterproductive, alienating the hearts and minds it most wants to win over. If anything good is to come out of this discussion, it is that civilian deaths are being referred to quite clearly as “civilian deaths.” Who knows if the euphemism “collateral damage” is still being used in military circles but in newspapers worldwide the use of any such euphemism has been discarded. In any kind of warfare, civilian casualties can be expected. A war zone is not a football field where security guards keep non-team members off the field. It is, however, particularly cowardly of combatants to surround themselves with non-combatants in order to avoid air strikes from drones or manned aircraft. It is equally cowardly for those holding the remote controls to unleash an attack knowing full well that civilians, including elderly, women and children, are going to be killed. Reason – a foreign concept when weapons are involved – would seem to be the only solution. __
