I posted this diary on Drones recently, and wanted to update it.  We need to have the discussion on drone war.  The US use of drones is increasing massively, both abroad and domestically.  Some are capable of only reconnaissance and logistics, but many are now armed with bombs and rocket launchers.

Author P.W. Singer has written a new book: Wired for War: The Robotic Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century.  Here is a portion of Amy Goodman's interview with him.

He hopes that his research will start a public discussion of this burgeoning sort of sterile warfare, and its potential for increasing the marketization of war.  He worries that mechanized war will increase trends that exist now: killings that require no formal declaration of war, making a military obsolete,  decreasing  public linkage to war, by which he means the public won't be made to suffer, so accountability will lessen.  He is also concerned that youtube war is a double-edged sword: one one hand, the public can watch drone war online; but he rues that the clips promote 'drone porn,' and will  deepen the public disconnect from the reality of war.

He speaks briefly about the failure of international law to keep up with the issues of robotic war, and brings up the issue of the lack of accountability for 'mistakes.'

The New England Journal of Medicine issued a report analyzing civilian deaths in Iraq, noting that increased air war accounts for increased civilian deaths.

Open Democracy has more here, with a link to Pakistan: the New Frontline.

We need to have the discussion!