The use of unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAV’s, is becoming increasingly controversial. U.S. military leaders say the robotic drone aircraft have been effective in killing Al-Qaeda and Taliban insurgents in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan without putting U.S. troops in danger. But what happens when civilians die too? Our guest is Peter Singer, senior fellow and director of the 21st Century Defense Initiative at the Brookings Institution; he’s also author “Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century”
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On 60min this Sunday 5.10.09
Increasingly, the U.S. military is relying on un-manned, often armed aircraft to track and destroy the enemy – sometimes controlled from bases thousands of miles away from the battlefront. Lara Logan reports. Watch the teaser Video
1 comments
for the politicians to wage war — such as unmanned drones and cruise missiles — is bad.
Unfortunately, these toys are just made to order for a president who’s never seen war up close as a soldier. They give such a prez the feeling that war can be waged surgically, in a way that can be sold politically.