Drone Warfare and  Moral Choice 

Something deep inside all of us knows that using drones on others is immoral. In her blog, Drone Warfare and Moral Choice, Dr. Hand says she can "explain remarkably simply why this is deeply
immoral. In his book, Living Beyond War, artist and teacher Winslow Myers provides a list of a truth held sacred by many great leaders, thinkers and cultures:'

Buddhism: Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful.

Hinduism: Do naught unto others what would cause you pain if done unto you.

Judaism: What is hateful to you, do not to your fellow man.

Christianity: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Islam: No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he desire for himself.

Sikhism: I am a stranger to no one; and no one is a stranger to me. Indeed, I am a friend to all.

Taoism: Regard your neighbor's gain as your own gain and your neighbor's loss as your own loss.

These are almost universally considered to be the essence of morality. Read the full article  

Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control

Political and peace activist Medea Benjamin has written a passionate and thorough exploration of the origin, use, and emotional and moral damages of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)-aerial drones. Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control is a powerful argument against their use as weapons. A reader seeking insight will not be disappointed.

The essayist Barbara Ehrenreich writes a trenchant Foreword that puts this kind of warfare into its historical context. Weaponized drones are only the latest inventions that allow us to kill-at-a-distance. Ehrenreich reminds us how in the Iliad the invading Greeks ridiculed the Trojan Prince Paris for his reliance on the bow and arrow. Only cowards, attacking from a distance and afraid of the honorable hand-to-hand, face-to-face combat of heroes, said the Greeks, would abandon the sword for such a weapon.

From slings, to bow and arrows, to catapults, to guns, to bombs, to Tomahawk missiles, we have certainly been making progress in the practice of killing.

Benjamin opens her "Introduction" with heart-rending personal accounts of the horrifying tragedy visited on people in Afghanistan by U.S. drones. "Collateral damage," the antiseptic term used to anesthetize the moral conscience of drone users or the citizens who provide the tax money to construct and deliver drones are transformed for the reader into actual fellow human beings...men, women, and children. This is as it should be: it puts the remainder of the book into its proper moral context.   

Serious activists and lovers of peace are encouraged to buy the book, absorb it, and support the efforts of Medea and others who have the vision to stop the use of weapons arguably as inherently evil (powerfully negative for humans) as atomic bombs.

     Benjamin, Medea. 2012. Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control. New York: OR Books.  

The AFWW website offers a lengthy review of Drone Warfare.