Drones save lives

Take the emotion out the ‘drone wars’ debate

Ethical considerations are of the utmost importance in war. No democracy can wage a sustained war unless it occupies the moral high ground. We usually go to war to maintain the rule of law, especially international or humanitarian law, so if we ignore what is right and wrong in our conduct of operations, then we will have a fatal contradiction at the centre of our strategy.

Such ethical contradictions can be fatal for the simple reason that when things get tough – as they do in every war – the Australian people must be able to see an alignment of ethical policy throughout everything their military does. Some individual ethical failures are inevitable because militaries are made up of human beings, but systemic or corporate failures are unforgivable.