The day is fast approaching when states will be able to wage war against other states without their military having to leave their own country. War with two distinct portions, the perpetrators sitting comfortably in what could pass for an electronic games room with keyboards, hand sets and monitors and those on the receiving end being blasted into oblivion by guided missiles, drones and other new hi-tec weaponry. You don't even need to be fit, you just sit comfortably in your seat at an office not far from your home, handset suitably placed, gaze at your monitor and at the right moment move your finger and BOOM, mission accomplished. After your 8 hour shift you can go home to your family. Warriors of the future. It is not as if this is far fetched, at the moment the US is creating havoc in the region of the Afghanistan/Pakistan border with a just such a scenario. The drones that are killing thousands in the Afghanistan/Pakistan border region are controlled from somewhere in America.
The drone attacks were relatively few back in 2004 as a matter of fact the total number of drone attacks for 2004/2007 was just 9 strikes with estimated deaths ranging from 89 to 112. In 2008 the numbers increased quite dramatically with 34 drone strikes that year alone and deaths between 273 and 313. When the man of peace, Obama took office in 2009, the number of drone strikes increased again with the estimated deaths rising to between 368 and 724. 2010 saw the deaths from drone strikes almost double to somewhere between 607 and 993.
The New America Foundation states that since 2004 the total killed in drone strikes in that region number somewhere between 1,435 and 2,283, that's is a lot of death and misery without leaving your office. Of course their will be those who say they were all Taliban or Al Qaeda but again The New America Foundation state that about 32% of those deaths were civilian. Killed dispassionately from the comfort of an office chair, it is really quite frightening.
As long as we continue with the state system and its bed companion, corporate capitalism, we will have wars and those wars will become more and more hi-tec with the military being more and more like office staff who never get their hands dirty and never see the blood they shed, making it easier and easier for the state to recruit killers for their cause of power and profit above all.
