Drone Warfare Comes Home To Roost

Somewhat lost in the reporting on the Dallas shooting was the use of drones to kill US citizens on US soil. Previously we have had drones kill US citizens abroad such as Anwar Al Awlaki. The reasoning given there that he was an enemy combatant having declared war or joined a group that had declared war on the US.

What is new is that a drone (they need not fly) was used to kill a citizen who at the time he was blown up posed no danger to any civilian. He was holed up. The drone could easily determine whether he had explosives on his person. The drone could have been used to "flash bang" the suspect or used a low yield explosive that would have injured but not killed him.

I have said in the past that the use of drones will negatively impact warfare as the usual inherent risk of man-to-man combat is taken away and killing becomes a cool and easy endeavor. We should be extremely concerned with the use of drones to kill suspects no matter how guilty they seem to be by circumstances.