Drones: Good or bad?

[Sassenach91]

I personally find Drones to be a very terrible military advantage. While I agree they eliminate the possibility of casualties of pilots, the US does a rather poor job of ensuring they strike where they are supposed to. I recently watched the show Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, and found his commentary very enlightening and on point. So after watching the youtube video on this link, what are your views as far as drones? Good, or bad?

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Drones

[Zakharra]

 Over all I think they are good. They do good reconnaissance and can launch attacks, but there's definite limitations in how they can be used (jam the airspace and no more drone), but that's the same with anything. in the military. There's no weapon system that is good for every situation.

As for the problems of strikes not landing right, that happens even with manned planes and helicopters. There's never any guarantee of not having civilian casualties. It's a sad fact, but that's been a part of war since there's been war. The best we can do is minimize it as best we can. We'll never be able to eliminate it and it would be stupid to claim we could too.

[Sethala]

I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with drones, or even drone strikes.  What I do find problematic is how they've been (supposedly, at least) used, as weapons with a large number of innocent casualties.  However, take the drones away, and the same kind of strikes could be done with manned aircraft, so I don't think they're problematic in that sense.

[Sassenach91]

I just think they could be a bit more controlled. All of these drone strikes with so many innocent casualties makes me worried. I see them almost as a necessary evil. In part, they are unmanned, cheaper, and effective, but they are used so often that we don't even have an exact account of how many strikes they've put on "imminent threats" that turned out to be wrong. The number of strikes need to be controlled and better used, otherwise we look like a terrorist to those who we are trying to protect from terrorists.

[Callie Del Noire]

The issue, to me, is not a matter of control. It's a two part issue. The rules of engagement that we are operating under aren't too clear cut and not well overseen. The second is intelligence. We don't have a lot of on the ground human intelligence in the area. That is in due to a LOT of factors dating back to the Reagan era. Electronic Intelligence and a surge in analysts leave us behind in any issue that requires accurate on the ground assessment.

Downsizing of international assets (Spies), a 'satellites can do it better & cheaper' outlook, several devastating hits to US trust (Wikileaks and the revelation of Valerie Plane as a NOC (no official agent)) have all reduced our capacity to recruit men and women in the field that are willing to trust in our ability to protect their lives and their families.

Bluntly put.. we are lacking good rules on how to use the drones and eyes to look at the targets we're shooting at.

I think first off.. the Drones should be entirely under the control of Department of Defense (DoD), with clarified rules of engagement and more defined oversight. Then we need to put the CIA back to what they do. Collect intelligence rather act on it. We need to recruit/deploy more folks in the field. In Yemen, for example, there have been NUMEROUS cases of the terrorists coming in after a strike and paying for recostructing homes and burying family members. We're making them look like good guys.. and building their base for them.