Militarism on Autopilot?

Americans are already too detached from the realities of war as it is, and now we're using pilot-less aircraft and other robotic technology to do our dirty work? Yes, according to P.W. Singer, author of Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century. In a recent interview Singer explained that using these higher precision drones will result in fewer casualties and fewer condolence letters being sent to families of fallen soldiers. But will the prospect of "safer" combat deepen our complacency even further and lead us to wage more war over the long run? And what will it mean for those countries who don't have this technology yet? Is all this lopsided use of military force really fair. And do we care?

Americans would do well to seriously consider that last point since we're not the only country investing in this type of technology. Moreover, we're not exactly the envy of other nations when it comes to our science scores and we don't invest enough in educating people with the technological know-how to churn out and operate this type of machinery. If we're not careful, we may end up becoming the innocent victims of war we so callously disregard now.

The program had a lot of interesting points, but the comments section had even more thought-provoking questions. Here are a few of them:

Tom, you're letting Singer get away with addressing only the perspective of the remote drone operator. What about the perspective of the innocent lives that are being remotely decimated, along with the few intended targets that this cowardly method has managed to kill.

If you're not willing to spill your own blood for a cause, then you can not justify spilling the blood of others for it.

Posted by Todd, on January 5th, 2010 at 11:22 am EST

Here, here! Another person had this to say:

The Terminator series of movies and book tells us a lot about the endgame of this kind of at-a-distance robotic war. Facing a real live enemy is far, far different than facing living breathing human beings. Perhaps we would not be exponentially increasing the number of our enemies if we were not killing their avatars on a computer screen.

Posted by Dee, on January 5th, 2010 at 11:23 am EST

I couldn't agree more. And in my opinion those video games are just plain rotten. No good at all. Another commenter offered this perspective:

Your guest mentioned science-fiction. "A Taste of Armeggdon" a Star Trek episode, featured an inter-planetary war conducted by computers. No bombings, no blood, just computers telling each other which sector of the planet had been attacked. Residents reported to extermination booths, willingly. Without the horror and human involvement the war continued for centuries. Are we headed towards that?

Posted by Elena, on January 5th, 2010 at 11:15 am EST

Yikes. I certainly hope not. What an existence! Finally, this person reminded us of the following:

Hello
Given time, any new Weapons eventually becomes part of the enemies arsenal.(Eg# Nuclear, chemical PETE, etc). So what happens when the enemies start using unmanned robots to hit US remotely ?

As a species this is a downward spiral into destroying ourself.

Regards,
Abhi

Posted by abhijit, on January 5th, 2010 at 11:26 am EST

Good point.

God help us all.