game changer, eh? maybe it's only for americans, who like to avoid bodybags and like video games. others may still prefer actually killing people on the ground.
===============
"In the beginning we feared that drones may make the operators not really care about what they're doing. But the opposite has turned out to be true. They may almost care too much. We're seeing higher levels of combat stress among remote units than among some units in Afghanistan. ... There are different theories as to why. Traditional bomber pilots don't see their targets. A remote operator sees the target up close, he sees what happens to it during the explosion and the aftermath. You're further away physically but you see more. Also, the drone war takes place 24/7, 365 days a year. The war doesn't stop on Christmas. It's like being a fireman when there's a fire every single day, day after day after day. ... There's a disconnect. You're at war, and two minutes later you're changing your brain and you think about football practice with your kids. Drone units don't show as much cohesion as traditional units. The whole unit used to share the emotional experience. Now there's no 'band of brothers' anymore."
— Defense expert P.W. Singer of the Brookings Institution says one "can compare the impact of [drone and robotic warfare] with the introduction of gunpowder, the printing press or the airplane."
"In the beginning we feared that drones may make the operators not really care about what they're doing. But the opposite has turned out to be true. They may almost care too much. We're seeing higher levels of combat stress among remote units than among some units in Afghanistan. ... There are different theories as to why. Traditional bomber pilots don't see their targets. A remote operator sees the target up close, he sees what happens to it during the explosion and the aftermath. You're further away physically but you see more. Also, the drone war takes place 24/7, 365 days a year. The war doesn't stop on Christmas. It's like being a fireman when there's a fire every single day, day after day after day. ... There's a disconnect. You're at war, and two minutes later you're changing your brain and you think about football practice with your kids. Drone units don't show as much cohesion as traditional units. The whole unit used to share the emotional experience. Now there's no 'band of brothers' anymore."
— Defense expert P.W. Singer of the Brookings Institution says one "can compare the impact of [drone and robotic warfare] with the introduction of gunpowder, the printing press or the airplane."
No comments:
Post a Comment