Advantages and Ethics of Using Drones in Warfare and Civilian Life Essay Example
Advantages and Ethics of Using Drones in Warfare and Civilian Life Essay Example

Advantages and Ethics of Using Drones in Warfare and Civilian Life Essay Example

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  • Pages: 6 (1474 words)
  • Published: February 27, 2022
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A long time ago before the coming of civilization and modernization, during the periods of civil warfare between communities and nations bows and arrows and other forms simply made instruments of war were used. Such tools were the defining features of war are what could be used to defend communities during the times of war. A point of relief and advancement in technology is what led to the discovery and manufacture of new instruments of war which are more powerful as compared to the previous (Benjamin 2012, Pp13). Over the years the numbers of tools that can be in used in the war field are in their hundreds of thousands if not millions. It is through such kind of inventions that the idea of making of a drone came. The United States is a leader in regards to the artillery of warfare, and it is whe

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re the drone was first invented by Israeli- born aircraft engineer Abraham Karem who relocated to the United States.

Similarly, there has been a contentious and unending debate on the ethicality of the use of drones in civilian life and warfare. There have been different stakeholders involved in the debate about the ethics of the use of drones in warfare and civilian with the proposers being the military department and secret surveillance team of the armies and the opposers being mostly different people from different professional backgrounds. The United States military remains the world in the use of drones in carrying out targeted killings particularly those of the terrorist extremist’s groups. The issues that the people in the opposition of the use of drones allude to is that the number o

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innocent causalities involved is high in the warfare case and it is also an intrusion on the privacy rights in the case of the civilian life (Himes 2015, Pp 81).From my understanding and perception, the pros and cons of the use of drones are called for. Hence I support it since the advantages of using them outweighs the disadvantages.

The use of drones in warfare is itself a huge milestone in the technological advancement of the military operations in dealing with external and internal enemies to any state all over the world. As is evident at the start of this paper the idea of using drones in military operations has received a lot of media attention and thus public interest in the way that they operate and the essence of using them. To start with drones have been referred to in different military terms they are referred to as attack drones, spy drones, surveillance drones and killer drones. In reference to the above terms that have been used to refer to drones, it is evident that drones are used for various purposes such as surveillance and spying, attacking and killing. It is, therefore, clear that drones are referred to as by their functionality. However, the conception that is in the public domain is that drones are used for military attack purposes a conception that is not true (Cockburn 2015, Pp 61 ).

The most direct and comprehensive term that is used to refer to a drone is an unmanned aerial vehicle UAV. From a consequentiality approach, the rising of extremist and terrorist activities and their conduct is what has necessitated the critical judgment of opting to use

drones so as to counter the effect of arsonist terror activities and operation. It is important to keep in mind that the terrorist activities have claimed a lot in recent years than ever before, for instance, the September 11 attack on world trade center in the United States. The use of unmanned aerial vehicles in warfare is not only low cost and low risk but it is more accurate than the attack operations using the fighter jets. The main point of using drones as I have stated above is that the level of accuracy is much higher and this is a plus to the military as it helps in countering the effect of terrorist activities such as the Islamic state. The terrorist is also using very sophisticated instruments and software’s of war hence the need to be counter this effect by the use of unmanned aerial vehicles.

In civilian life, drones are used in experiment and research expeditions for instance in the famous three idiots movie we can see one of the characters using a drone to carry his experiments on the campus and to monitor what other students are doing (Lango 2014, Pp 44).In the making of movies and films, drones are used in capturing the unfolding of action in different angles and perspectives that would be otherwise impossible with the use of tripod mounted cameras. This has enabled the making of very quality films that have gone ahead to win awards as a result of the way they are produced. In agricultural activities drones are used in huge plantations for the purpose of spraying pesticides and other chemicals to kill pesticides so as to

get optimum yields.

The second major point of use in both civilian and warfare is the operational hours that are more extended while using drones as compared to other conventional means (Williams 2013, Pp 89).The use of manned resources to carry out activities that are carried out by drones is limited to human ability and endurance which is limited to some hours. Humans are bound to get tired after working for long hours as opposed to the drones that have the ability to work for longer hours, and this consequently increases the output that is expected from the activity carried out by the use of the drone. This is beneficial and can be connected to the fact that drones are very cost effective as compared to other forms of conducting the activities that would rather be carried out by use of a drone. This enhances the volume of work that can be conducted by the use as compared to using human -based effort. Similarly, the above consideration makes it much better and ethical to use drones due to the amount of work that they can accomplish as compared to human beings. It is important to note drones can be set to operate under an automatic remote control basis hence reducing the amount of human operation time.

The ethics surrounding the use of drones in warfare and civilian is very intricate in the sense that it has generated enormous debate in public domain. The debate is particularly centered of the law regulations that govern the use of drones. There is an assertion that there is insufficient regulation in regards to the use of drones both in civilian life

and in warfare. Due to the widespread use of drones in civilian life since they are readily in the market has been a usual scene in football matches concerts and mass gatherings of people (Capizzi 2015, Pp 19). However, due to their widespread use the drones have been said to violate people’s rights as regards to their privacy and property as they are no stipulated laws to deal with such intrusion of one’s rights. Some drones are said to tamper with communication networks as they can hack Wi-Fi passwords and gain access to private information which is a violation of the privacy rights of an individual.

In regards to the virtue theory of ethics, the usage of drones is supposed to be responsible and be guided by the laws and rules and should emphasize a good character as a consequence of the actions undertaken by the use of the drones (White et al., 2015, Pp 106). While accepting the major advancements brought about by the use of drones there ought to be the formulation of stringent laws regulate how drones are used. This will, in turn, promote a sense of accountability in the operations and activities conducted by the drones and consequently enhance prosperity and promote improved security standards (Shane 2015 Pp 92). As regards to Moore’s impersonal consequentialism of ethics, the consequences of a person’s conduct in the use of the drone forms a foundation for making any judgment of whether the conduct was right or wrong. In most cases alludes to the premise that the end justifies the means.

Work cited

  1. Benjamin, Medea, and Barbara Ehrenreich. Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control. , 2012. Print.
  • Himes, Kenneth R. Drones and the Ethics of Targeted Killing. , 2015. Internet resource
  • Cockburn, Andrew. Kill Chain: The Rise of the High-Tech Assassins. , 2015. Print.
  • Lango, John W. The Ethics of Armed Conflict: A Cosmopolitan Just War Theory. Edinburgh: Edinburgh Univ. Press, 2014. Print.
  • Williams, Brian G. Predators: The Cia's Drone War on Al Qaeda. , 2013. Print.
  • Capizzi, Joseph E. Politics, Justice and War: Christian Governance and the Ethics of Warfare. , 2015. Print.
  • White, Jeffrey, and Rick Searle. Rethinking Machine Ethics in the Age of Ubiquitous Technology. , 2015. Internet resource.
  • Shane, Scott. Objective Troy: A Terrorist, a President, and the Rise of the Drone. , 2015. Internet resource.
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