Vietnam
war was the last time when the risk of war was equally dispersed between both
parties. Today the US military operates what are known as Drones.
Planes that are engaging enemy combatants in Iraq are flown by American men and
women from Creech Air Force Base located in Nevada. These pilots
seek-and-destroy by day, and attend PTA meetings by night.
These technological advances on the battlefield have shifted the risk to being equal between both parties to now being born almost entirely by the other party. If a drone is shot down, a few million dollars in taxpayer’s money is lost, but American human life is preserved. For now we have mitigated the risk of war, but at what cost and for how long?
Eventually, like all technological innovations, the information will be disseminated amongst competitors. There will be a point when Al-quada or another enemy will surface with equivalent, or as is often the case, an even superior technology. That means at any point during your normal day an unmanned aerial vehicle could be flying over your house dropping bombs on your neighbors, or possibly even you. The original risk that was shared between two combatants on a battlefield has now been moved to each and every individual of the world. Risk we thought we mitigated has come back and gown exponentially.
These technological advances on the battlefield have shifted the risk to being equal between both parties to now being born almost entirely by the other party. If a drone is shot down, a few million dollars in taxpayer’s money is lost, but American human life is preserved. For now we have mitigated the risk of war, but at what cost and for how long?
Eventually, like all technological innovations, the information will be disseminated amongst competitors. There will be a point when Al-quada or another enemy will surface with equivalent, or as is often the case, an even superior technology. That means at any point during your normal day an unmanned aerial vehicle could be flying over your house dropping bombs on your neighbors, or possibly even you. The original risk that was shared between two combatants on a battlefield has now been moved to each and every individual of the world. Risk we thought we mitigated has come back and gown exponentially.
The risk of outsourcing the production or our
technology grows when we use countries like China, whom is growing to become
our biggest ally and threat.
By removing the soldier from the battlefield we hoped to negate the effects of war. However, research shows that the pilots controlling these vehicles still feel the effects of war. Post-traumatic stress prevails whether the soldier commits the act of taking a life in physical presence or through a computer screen. We have removed the emotion from murder. A controller of an unmanned vehicle can't pick through the ruble of a target to see if there was civilian casualties. We are in a way taking away the risk of the soldier being wrong, and suffering the emotional trauma of being wrong. This has heightened the risk of the average civilian.
By removing the soldier from the battlefield we hoped to negate the effects of war. However, research shows that the pilots controlling these vehicles still feel the effects of war. Post-traumatic stress prevails whether the soldier commits the act of taking a life in physical presence or through a computer screen. We have removed the emotion from murder. A controller of an unmanned vehicle can't pick through the ruble of a target to see if there was civilian casualties. We are in a way taking away the risk of the soldier being wrong, and suffering the emotional trauma of being wrong. This has heightened the risk of the average civilian.
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