No - the alternatives are air-strikes and artillery. Drones have the advantage of loiter time, they can spend ages in situ gathering intelligence and analysing

No - the alternatives are air-strikes and artillery. Drones have the advantage of loiter time, they can spend ages in situ gathering intelligence and analysing whether to shoot or not. This does generate the mental health problems for the analysts the articles describes - the same as for snipers, they watch the person they are going to kill. Aircraft and the infantry that call in air strikes and artillery do not have loiter time, usually the enemy know they're out and about (certainly in Afghanistan) and thus they are "reactive".