PKSOI/GLOBAL TRENDS CASE STUDIES A Drone's Strike Away | Page 3

Case Study #1118-08
PKSOI TRENDS GLOBAL CASE STUDY SERIES
A Drone’s Strike Away:
Peace and Security in the Age of Automated Warfare
To the United States, a drone strike seems to have very little risk and very little pain. At the receiving end, it
feels like war. Americans have got to understand that. If we were to use our technological capabilities care-
lessly—I don’t think we do, but there’s always the danger that you will—then we should not be upset when
someone responds with their equivalent, which is a suicide bomb in Central Park, because that’s what they can
respond with.

Retired Gen. Stanley McChrystal in an interview with Foreign Affairs 1
Do the United States and its people really want to tell those of us who live in the rest of the world that our lives
are not of the same value as yours?

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, in a letter to the editor of the New York Times 2
December 12, 2013. A United States aerial drone launched four Hellfire missiles on a convoy of 11 cars and pickup
trucks during a counterterrorism operation in rural Yemen. The strike killed at least 12 and wounded 15 others, 6 of
them seriously. Only, the strike did not hit a band of insurgents, it hit a wedding convoy with some 60 guests traveling
from the groom’s home to a neighboring village where the bride lived. 3 After the attack, angry residents took to the
streets and “blocked a main road in Rad`a, a provincial capital in central Yemen, while displaying the bodies of those
killed. Provincial authorities then unofficially acknowledged civilian casualties by providing money and assault rifles—a
traditional gesture of apology—to the families of the dead and wounded.” 4 In an effort to introduce more transparency
into the military use of drones, on July 1, 2016, the White House released information claiming that “as many as 116 ci-
vilians had been killed by drone and other US strikes in Pakistan, Yemen and Africa since President Barack Obama took
office in 2009.” 5 In the same time span, the administration said, “between 2,372 and 2,581 militants had been taken out
by drones.” 6
November 8, 2013. When Typhoon Haiyan, with sustained winds of 195 mph the strongest tropical cyclone ever re-
corded in human history, made landfall in the Philippines, it left more than 6,000 people dead, destroyed nearly 250,000
homes and displaced almost one million residents. 7 In the aftermath, several relief groups flew drones over the affected
areas to survey the damage, identify blocked roads and find displaced people. “But,” says Patrick Meier, who was in Ma-
nila doing humanitarian work with the UN at the time, “the drone operators didn’t share the information they gathered
with local authorities or other relief organizations. Many of the drone teams didn’t even know about one another, mak-
ing their work inefficient and even dangerous.” 8 Although perhaps best known for their use in military operations, un-
manned aerial vehicles, according to Abi Weaver, Director of International Services for the American Red Cross, “have
been used to track Indonesia’s progress rebuilding after the 2004 tsunami, to monitor sporting events in the Netherlands
so that injured athletes can get medical attention more quickly, to track weather in Peru, and to rebuild communication
networks in Ireland after floods. In South America, drones are helping to preserve archaeological sites, simplify the land
titling process, and document environmental violations.” 9
July 7, 2016. The gunman had just hit his 11th target when the bomb exploded. Following police shootings in Minne-
sota and Louisiana two days earlier, the lone sniper, an Army Reserve Afghan War veteran, fatally shot five law enforce-
ment officers and wounded another six on this humid summer evening in Dallas, TX. Police Chief David Brown made
the final call and “carried out a plan law enforcement experts say they’ve never seen done by local officials: Use a robot
and a pound of C-4 explosive to take the sniper out.” 10 Faced with a military-trained and heavily armed suspect who had
barricaded himself on the second floor of El Centro Community College building in downtown Dallas, police officers
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