Droning on

I'll be honest I'm pretty ambiguous about our excessive use of Drones. Lets be clear that I think they are a great asset.  Providing over-watch for long periods of time with little to no radar signature they are ideally suited to the mission of over-watch in Afghanistan.  There's just one problem, they seem to become an ends not a means.  Anwar Al wacky got whacked by one, hell they almost did that with OBL, and Pakistan is receiving almost daily drone strikes.  On the one hand this is a good thing because we are wracking up a prodigious kill count but that's also part of the problem. 

Much like boxing or MMA there are problems when you keep someone at arms length.  It gives them time to plan to react to counteract.  See we may be able to figure out a lot of thing but relying on this God-like over view will eventually lead to mistakes when the enemy figures it our enough or worse gets help from an ally with marginal technological abilities.  What do you suppose would happen if say Iran were able to Hack into our Drones and use them against our own troops.  Theres literally nothing to stop them from doing that.  If they control the Freq and have the right codes then they control the drone.  Simple as that. 

But there's also another problem.  See when you get up close and personal, when you come knocking at an enemy's door and actually take him prisoner no warning no mercy, that leads to real fear, on their part.  But it also gives us a face.  A threat that they can put into words, and their friends can talk about.  Day, Night, it doesn't matter Speed, Violence of Action and surprise will always win out.  There is another problem with this strategy. You can't win hearts and minds. you can't engage or get informants or possibly win over the children. 

So while I think Drones can be a great asset, I really think that they should be used sparingly however.  Too much automation in warfare is not a good thing.