Drones

Paddy Ashdown, writing in The Times last week, was in favour of the use of drone missiles by the Americans for what I thought were very good reasons. This is war that is being fought after all and these drones are used sparingly to target terrorists though, unfortunately, civilians are also killed. But, he argued, they are not killed in great numbers and we must understand that in all wars people who are non-combatants do get killed. They have, he went on, been very effective in getting rid of some of the most "important" leaders of the various groups that come under the name of Al Queda.
You get the feeling from the article that this is the only effective way of dealing with such abominable people who kill indiscrinately in great numbers - indeed, the greater the number of civilians that they can eliminate, the better they like it.
But there are dangers. One is specified in a letter to Time magazine this week. Faroud Rahman, writing from Karachi puts the case that " a good number of innocent and unarmed civilians have lost their precious lives, yet the relentless attacks continue. The US is indirectly creating more militants after each bombing that does not wipe out its intended target. Please stop the heinous act; halt the carnage."
Another danger, closer to home perhaps is expressed in another letter to Time."Drone technology is spreading fast worldwide and one never knows when or how it will land in the wrong hands." (The inference is that it is temporarily in the right hands.) "The consequence could be dreadful..... Imagine what extremists could do if they managed to possess or control a fleet of armed drones.... Is there any pre-empting measure to contain proliferation?"