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The public isn't nearly so concerned about military actions carried out by a volunteer military. But nobody is proposing that we reinstate the draft, are we? An
by pekk 11y ago
The public isn't nearly so concerned about military actions carried out by a volunteer military. But nobody is proposing that we reinstate the draft, are we? And as a reminder, even the draft did not stop Vietnam - including My Lai, Agent Orange and uncountably many other atrocities. Why would eliminating drones do so? There is no drone-based explanation for why we accepted adventures like, say, Nicaragua. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were not primarily enabled by drones. Maybe you can argue that drones "helped." But the real thing that feeds this is the insanely high approval ratings of a "war president" (at least at the beginning, before political objectives are clearly unwinnable) and the high electability of presidents who beat their chests about raising our military profile. Which is the fault of an irrational, undereducated, bloodthirsty electorate.
I will go even further here: in my opinion, drones have not really helped make the wars more palatable at all, on the contrary, they have actually been the single best, most emotionally impactful argument anyone can think to deploy against US military policy and the Obama administration in particular. THAT is the reason we keep hearing about them, not necessarily because they are more heinous, but because the issue is perceived as a great political vulnerability and political opportunity. It sounds better to say that things are now worse than ever because of Obama's unprecedented evil than to point out that the real problem is why we are bombing at all. I don't expect focus on the drone issue to have any real fruit in terms of reducing the impact of US wars.
I wonder if you even base your opinion that drone strikes are resulting in more deaths on any real data or if you made up your mind ahead of any data. And I suspect you are grossly overestimating the degree of care taken in bombing campaigns prior to the drone era. The risks to high-altitude bombers in the conditions we are using drones are not vast. The real risks are of overbombing, which is one of the objectively worst and most immoral aspects of bombing campaigns in decades past (think cluster bombs).