Entry N°4 / Ines Hijazi - Derek Gregory

               Derek Gregory is a British geographer who has written in 2012 the article we have to read this week. Its name is 'From a view to a kill: Drones and late modern War'. It focuses mainly on the way the using of drones is perceived by western societies and academics. Gregory tries to show how drones change the way the war is making. He shows two main things that, for me, is necessary to raise and note. I feel like he tries to show us that drones on the one hand give far more power to soldier and on the other hand change the “human side of war”, no matter how awkward and paradoxical this expression seems

            First, the using of drones is something particularly attractive for militaries organization.  It allows reducing deeply the cost of war for the country that used them in terms of money and in terms of human causalities. Why? It seems pretty clear: drones allow limiting the number of military causalities. It changes completely the power struggle between soldier and eliminated targets.  The using of drones give the capacity to soldiers not being in a big danger when they try to kill their targets. Drones change something definitely important since some people such as the ones who work in the Combined Air Operations Center doing war without being totally aware of it. Gregory gives the analogy of a video game. Nothing is real when you are not able to clearly see the consequences of your acts. And that is why I claim that drones change something fundamental in the way war is making. Gregory introduce the critics done by Grossman in 1995 who identify distance as a powerful means of overcoming the resistance to killing. According to him, in the Second World War ‘pilots and bombardiers were protected by distance’ from seeing the effects of their bombs. To employ exactly his words, he said ‘From a distance I can deny your humanity, and from a distance I cannot hear your scream’.

            Warfare changes the human side of war into a big game.  No fear anymore, no consciousness, no regard between two human – only technology and eliminated targets. I do not think we can put down the big consequences the using of drones provokes. Now, drones attacks are sometimes view as a way to make a ‘virtuous war’ ((Der Derian) because they cause less causalities in military forces. But now it is worse, isn’t it? It causes the death of civilians that have no point with the war and who do not ask anything just be left alone. I think with the using of nuclear bomb and drones, war is becoming less and less human. I mean, now it is not human who make war but it is technology. So we are living in a century where technologies, sciences, in kind of way progress become the worst enemy of humanity since it allows powerful country to attack weak ones without feeling aware of what they are doing.