Drones Going Mainstream?

The use of drones has been particularly helpful for the US military in the Middle East and Asia. Now, even "police departments, border patrols, power companies, news organizations and others wanting a bird's-eye view that's too impractical or dangerous for conventional planes or helicopters to get to" want their own toy drone as well. However, there are still many dilemmas that come along with the practical uses of a drone.

At the forefront of the opposition to giving the private sector access to these highly regulated, meticulously engineered machines is the question of civilian privacy as well as safety. With the drones requiring "routine and unfettered access to domestic airspace, including around airports and cities," these drones could go crashing into other airplanes or helicopters flying around. Furthermore, having access to these drones would give news organizations practically unlimited access to all events they wish to cover.

Personally, I find the thought of drones flying all over the country rather disturbing. There's no way to know who's on the other side controlling the drone or knowing what the drone is equipped with. Maybe it's just a harmless upgraded version of an RC helicopter or the drone could be used by the media to invade someone's privacy. Who knows?

What are your thoughts on these drones? Does mixing the military with domestic policy seem reasonable?

U.S. Drone Returned...But Miniature-Sized

In December, the United States' RQ-170 Sentinel drone was captured by the Iranian government. The U.S. government insisted the drone was in operation over East Afghanistan and came down only due to "technical malfunction."
President Obama called for the drone to be returned, but on December 11th, the Iranian government made it clear they would not comply with President Obama's request with regards to the United States' "hostile act" of impeding upon Iranian airspace.
Now, the Iranian government has agreed to return the drone but only a miniature version that is 1/80th the size of the original. The miniature version will also be available for Iranian customers to purchase at stores for the United States' currency equivalent of $4.00.
Hillary Clinton, the United States' Secretary of State, admits that even with the formal request, "we do not expect [Iran] to comply."

Droning on about Drones

Earlier this week, a main force in the al Qaida movement, Anwar al-Awlaki was killed as the result of a drone (here and here). The drone was obviously effective and useful so what's the big deal?

First of all, Awlaki was an American citizen. That in itself is a big deal and for the U.S. to kill a citizen without due process is shocking. However, this has been defended by using a quote from Lincoln: "the U.S. could 'treat its own citizens as enemies when they take up arms in rebellion.'"

For a couple of years now, drone warfare has been a topic of debate. Mainly, the legality of it. Should the U.S. continue to use drones even though the UNHRC has said that it needs to stop? The Obama administration continues to support drone warfare despite this. After all, drone warfare is considerably cheaper than sending in humans, and we have less causalities on our part.

I personally am against drone warfare as a little mistake in a calculation can lead the drone off target and kill innocent people. And, drones give the U.S. a considerable advantage and so if our enemy at the time decides to use it wouldn't it lead to another arms race and we'd experience MAD all over again? The main thing that concerns me is the large advantage that we have as a result. Wouldn't this advantage simply turn the U.S. into a killing machine because we can fairly accurately kill anyone we want at any time we want?

Some further reading here and here. Video below.