The only thing that is precise about drone strikes is the machine that delivers them. We should be realistic about how much we can programme imprecision out of our lives – and more modest about the true nature of precision strikes.
While it might seem optimistic to think that a tool for forecasting genocide can break down the political calculations that so often seem to obstruct effective responses to genocide, it is surely a hope worth chasing.
The American military at the end of the Cold War was a formidable force, large in size, very well equipped, and quite capable of meeting any conceivable Soviet warfare challenge, nuclear or conventional. Its recovery from Vietnam was total. Thoughts of honing its fast fading counter-insurgency skills or of a search to discover how best to participate in peace-keeping and nation-building ventures were far from its doctrinal priorities.
The conflicts being played out in Iraq and Afghanistan both pit regular armed forces of Coalition nations against irregular insurgent forces. Such conflicts have traditionally required large numbers of ground soldiers. In the twenty-first century though, technology has become more important than the number of boots on the ground because of the West’s low tolerance for casualties in its own armed forces.
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