Essay Drones: United States and Drone Attacks

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Drones With the world changing everyday due to improvements in technology, we knew it would only be a matter of time before it would start to show in all aspects of life. Now, in the year 2014, we are starting to see these technological improvements in our military. An enemy combatant is someone who is a member of the armed forces of a state with which another state is at war. As of right now, there is an American citizen in Afghanistan who is also a member of al-Qaida who is planning attacks on other American citizens who are currently overseas. Because of this dilemma, the United States are dealing with ways to settle this. The problem is that the man is both a threat to our great country and its citizens, and he is also a citizen himself. So should we use our new technological advanced drones to hunt him down and kill him? Or should we capture him and let him await a trial that he deserves because he is an American citizen? Because each and every one of you have different opinions on how to approach this situation, the following paragraphs will weigh both the pros and cons of using drones to find and kill this suspect.
The main pro to this is that it is easy. With this option it would only be a matter of time before the drone finds and kills him. Afterwards, all our problems would be gone. Some other pros include less fatalities, cheaper to produce, and make the United States safer by destroying terrorist networks worldwide. Using tradition war weapons kill more civilians than drones do. In WWII, civilian deaths were a total of 40 to 67% of all fatalities, which means that we killed more innocent people than we did enemies. However, since September 11, 2001 drones have only killed 8 to 17% of civilians out of all deaths by U.S. drones. That is one pro, and another is the cost. Roughly, it can cost from $18,000 to $169,000 per hour to operate a manned aircraft. On the other hand, the Department of Defense only budgeted $5 billion for drones is 2012. To sum this up, we spend roughly 6 to 42 times more on manned aircrafts than we do on drones. The last pro I will include is that using drones will make the United States safer by destroying terrorist networks worldwide. President Barack Obama has even said “dozens of highly skilled al Qaeda commanders, trainers, bomb makers and operatives have been taken off the battlefield. Plots have been disrupted that would have targeted international aviation, US transit systems, European cities, and our troops in Afghanistan. Simply put, these strikes have saved lives." (New York Times, "Obama's Speech on Drone Policy," nytimes.com, May 23, 2013). But not only does it protect American citizens from terrorists, but it protects the military from attacks as well. Because drones are unmanned, the men and women controlling them through technology are safe. Since they are not in direct combat, it is proven that they will have a lower risk of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder also. Now that you have had the chance to look at some pros, what are some of the cons? Well according to procon.org, one con is that using drones will create more terrorists than it will kill. Why? Because apparently when someone sees their loved ones injured or killed in drone attacks, they are motivated to join groups and rise against the United States in order to avenge their loved ones. Well in my own opinion, it is not just drone attacks that do this. If anyone saw their loved one killed or injured by a drone or a member of the military, or anything really, they would be motivated enough to do something about it. But nonetheless, it is still considered a consequence of drone
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