Drone AircraftI don't know why this hasn't come up sooner:A senior United Nations official is expected to call on the United States next week to stop Central Intelligence Agencydrone strikes against people suspected of belonging to Al Qaeda, complicating the Obama administration’s growing reliance on that tactic in Pakistan.Philip Alston, the United Nations special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, said Thursday that he would deliver a report on June 3 to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva declaring that the “life and death power” of drones should be entrusted to regular armed forces, not intelligence agencies. He contrasted how the military and the C.I.A. responded to allegations that strikes had killed civilians by mistake.“With the Defense Department you’ve got maybe not perfect but quite abundant accountability as demonstrated by what happens when a bombing goes wrong in Afghanistan,” he said in an interview. “The whole process that follows is very open. Whereas if the C.I.A. is doing it, by definition they are not going to answer questions, not provide any information, and not do any follow-up that we know about.”Mr. Alston’s views are not legally binding, and his report will not assert that the operation of combat drones by nonmilitary personnel is a war crime, he said. But the mounting international concern over drones comes as the Obama administration legal team has been quietly struggling over how to justify such counterterrorism efforts while obeying the laws of war.
What I fail to understand is how people think that the free use of drones to carry out foreign policy can go on indefinitely. Yes, by all means, kill the bad guys. I'm all for that. I am not, however, going to fail to point out that every technological or military advantage that we can gain on our adversaries is never going to go unanswered. When you develop a clear advantage over someone, they burn out their little brains trying to figure out how to compensate for the difference and take away your advantage. That's basic human nature.
There's no question that we have been going to the well for quite some time with regards to the use of drones to kill the enemy. This was going on long before we switched from a Republican to a Democrat administration. Common sense will tell you that what sells a program is whether or not it is fairly cheap, whether it risks lives, and what it can accomplish for you. The use of drones means that losing one is fairly acceptable, as compared to a real plane with a live pilot in it. The main threat to our personnel from the use of drones is carpal tunnel, if that. We derive great benefit from the platform as a collector of intelligence, but the bang for the buck comes when we can dispatch a missile from the thing and kill someone yapping on their phone or cowering in their hovel.
The program, thus, is sold. Once something is sold, few need wonder if it is legal. Our Congress has already made it legal to use drones to fight terror. I have no doubt that there will not be, nor could there be, a legal challenge to our use of drones that would stick. It would be like Italy calling for the arrest of our CIA agents--a pointless exercise in self-aggrandizement.
I wonder if someone has not already begun to develop an anti-drone weapons system that could be deployed in harsh conditions. A fast, lightweight Surface to Air anti-drone missile, shoulder-fired, perhaps? Something too small to be effective against a plane but perfect for knocking down a drone? We've seen how over-the-counter technology can hack into the video signal from the drone to the ground operator--do you think there might be something that can "take over" the drone or disable it in some way? It would be quite a leap to think that our enemies could come up with something surefire and effective. However, if we don't suspect they're trying, we're underestimating the enemy, and you can read your Sun Tzu on how that plays out.
So, no, we're not going to stop using the drones because someone at the United Nations objects. The Obama Administration is sold on their continued use. I'm not sold on them; I think the well is rapidly running dry and we cannot keep killing innocent civilians. How does that square with being an American, anyway? Maybe it's the old Cold Warrior in me, but I thought we were supposed to be above that sort of calculus.
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