It discourages me to hear conservatives brag about how they love our drones.  They think it is wonderful that these neat little drones are really good at killing all those nasty terrorists.  There is no doubt that these guys had it coming.  It feels so good to eliminate the problem painlessly.  Granted a few innocent civilians are also getting killed, but one must expect some collateral damage.  It’s doesn’t matter where they are, because our drones are really good.  We don’t even bother getting permission from the host country, or anyone else.  They can’t stop us anyway.  We just spot the target on the neat little camera and bombs away.  This is so exciting that the Obama administration tried to create a new combat medal for drone operators, to show their appreciation.  Liberals were describing this as the new, modern, better form of warfare.  What could possibly go wrong?

Unfortunately, we may have unleashed a serious problem.  One obvious problem is that our government may have been seriously considering the use of drones against us.  Every day there are more reports of drones being used in the U.S.  Currently, these drones aren’t armed they are just used for surveillance.  But originally drones in places like Afghanistan and Iraq weren’t armed either.  Then someone figured out that just attaching a little missile here and there was really cool.  One day a drone spotted a terrorist, a button was pushed and: instant results.  What a great new concept.  We can now kill people almost anywhere without risking any of our own people.  At first we only used them on the battlefield.  Then we started using them in Pakistan.  Now we are using them in places like Yemen and the Sudan.  If it wasn’t for Rand Paul, they might even have been used here. 

This reminds me of the nuclear bomb.  It was a great option for Harry S. Truman.  He dropped a couple of bombs, two cities were eliminated and World War II was over.  But within a short period of time, the Soviet Union also got a bomb.  Suddenly nuclear bombs weren’t all that great any more.  A nuclear bomb looks a lot less attractive when you are a potential target too.

I predict the same thing will happen with drones.  It won’t be long before our enemies have drones too.  According to the following article from National Journal, Iran may already have one:

http://www.nationaljournal.com/magazine/when-the-whole-world-has-drones-20130321

Even if they don’t have them yet, they will have them, probably sooner rather than later.  And as least one of them will feel no moral restrain in launching one against us.  Why would they?  We’re the ones who set the standard.

For whom the drone roams.  It roams for you and me.

TDM