Drones, Data, and National Security in the 21st Century
Friday, January 9, 2015
Blog 2
Lamontre Randall
Drones can be very advantageous on military aspects as it leaves out the necessity to draw troops into a certain warfare area. However, bullets do not have a name on it and the same effect can be said about drones which kills many civilians without any regard. Furthermore, I side with Sharkey that drones should be looked at more carefully before being implemented more into our military process.
Drones should be implemented more carefully by our military because they do not have the human capability to make informed decisions. Drones do not have the human capabilities in a split second during warfare to either kill the enemy or kill the innocent family in a village. Military operators on land are upfront and can make split decisions in who should be the target. Also, drones do not arrest individuals. Drones due to their lethal threat should be implemented as the last resort for warfare. However, throughout the years drones have saw an increase as our war tactic.
Also, drones contradict our fundamental American values of liberty. Drones can be used as surveillance tools. We use drones in Syria to find information on our enemies. The tactic seems great upfront but it also makes it able to access data from civilians. The drones even though technologically advanced are not humans and do not have the function of noticing whether someone is a civilian or enemy of the nation-state.
Military weapons such as drones can be used against us and interrupt our national security. The a United States are ahead in drone technology but soon the technology will be made more available for extremist. The political problem with that it is very easy to produce drone warfare. Drones can be controlled with a remote and the attacker can be in a far more remote area than the drone itself. The attacker is made more anonymous and harder to detect.
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Lamontre,
ReplyDeleteI like the point you make where you explain that it can be hypocritical of America to use drones because it can contradict liberty. However, liberty is something we value for American citizens. I am a huge believer in that if you become a threat to America, even if you are an American citizen, your rights and liberties should be revoked (after necessary investigation and proof of threat). While these people probably haven't been investigated, they are not American citizens--do you believe that we should respect other people's liberty even if they aren't American citizens?
Lamontre - There are two points I'd make in response to your post. Firstly, I think there is a difference between collecting personal information about a person, and observing an area of interest from 30,000 feet because there is a possible threat. Observing the movements of a threat or suspected threat is very different from gathering personal information and delving into someone's privacy. Even in cases where the information of foreigners or American citizens is collected on an individual level, it is because those people pose either a law enforcement or national security threat. In such a case, the collection of data to prevent violence or crime is necessary and justified. Additionally, I don't think that because the US uses drones inherently means the technology will fall into the hands of terrorists. That possibility exists whether the US chooses to use them or not. That being said, there is the risk that if a drone crashes, it can be reverse engineered by countries the US would rather not have gain that information.
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