[Bill,
May 15, 2012]
In which I go all libertarian
Charles Krauthammer on drones.
He comes out against our government using drones on American soil. He's OK with it in Somalia, apparently.
My qualms about drones has hardened into complete opposition, not that I get to set policy. But I am against the use of drones except in a case of declared war, and then only on our declared enemies, and never on our own soil. We think we're clever right now -- we can hit anyone at anytime. But that won't always be true. And it will create levels of frustration that foments terrorism.
Not only that, but the use of drones within the U.S. is another step closer to a totalitarian military state. I don't think I'm overstating the point. One danger in any nation is the government can see its own people as a threat.
And just for the record, I am against bombing anyone in any nation with anything stronger than a pointy stick except in case of declared war.
We've been doing way too much bombing. We're solving one set of problems, but we're creating others.
He comes out against our government using drones on American soil. He's OK with it in Somalia, apparently.
My qualms about drones has hardened into complete opposition, not that I get to set policy. But I am against the use of drones except in a case of declared war, and then only on our declared enemies, and never on our own soil. We think we're clever right now -- we can hit anyone at anytime. But that won't always be true. And it will create levels of frustration that foments terrorism.
Not only that, but the use of drones within the U.S. is another step closer to a totalitarian military state. I don't think I'm overstating the point. One danger in any nation is the government can see its own people as a threat.
And just for the record, I am against bombing anyone in any nation with anything stronger than a pointy stick except in case of declared war.
We've been doing way too much bombing. We're solving one set of problems, but we're creating others.
I suspect widespread domestic use of drones in the US is coming, no matter what. And once it comes, it will only grow, to levels which we can scarcely now conceive. Too tempting, you know? Needed to "fight terrorism." Or "Won't somebody please think of the children?"
Imagine countless zillions of drones in routine use across America.
Imagine something the size of a dime, hovering outside your window and gathering data on you. Perhaps relaying everything for permanent archiving in the new NSA data center which is being built out in Utah.
Imagine a cloud of drones swarming and acting like a single intelligent entity, apprehending some petty crook in a back alley, because you know the police can't be everywhere at once. Imagine this becoming a routine way of dealing with thieves, muggers, jaywalkers, smokers.
Imagine drones granted sufficient autonomy to take down or take out dangerous human individuals. Imagine mistakes being made, drones swarming and then terminating innocent people by mistake. Oops! Mistakes happen.
I think we open the door to the possibility, and in the long run the likelihood, of such things happening, once we allow the domestic use of drones.
The NSA is gathering so much data on each and every one of us already, that the Fourth Amendment has become an antiquated and obsolete joke. Several years ago Congress refused to approve a program called Total Information Awareness. Well guess what, here we are not too many years later, and Total Information Awareness has pretty much become a reality, legal authorization and constitutional safeguards be damned.
Oh, and if drones kill innocent Americans on American soil by mistake? You think it will merit more than a brief article on page 5 of the local newspaper? You know how many innocent people are already being terrorized or killed in this country by police SWAT teams that burst into the wrong house? Oops, mistakes happen!
(For that matter, you know how many innocent people overseas have already been killed by American drones?)
If we've gone this far down the road toward a police state already, without drones, just imagine what life will be like with drones. Once the domestic use of drones gets a foothold, very likely it will grow and it will become normalized, beyond George Orwell's worst nightmares.
You think it can't happen here? You think it can't become routine? Not too many years ago, I'm sure, people would've said the same about the routinization of crotch-groping Stasi in airports.