The media report that the United States government is working to develop pilotless military drones that are fully automatic, identifying and destroying human targets on the ground without any intervention from an operator or pilot back in Nevada, is generating virtually no public outrage. That a computer brain can become judge, jury, and executioner in the airspace over a foreign country with which the United States is not at war raises serious constitutional questions in terms of war powers but it also ignores any kind of due process in the execution of targets who might or might not have committed any crimes. It also accepts that collateral damage consisting of killing completely innocent people who happen to be in the vicinity of a suspect is acceptable. As for the targets themselves, apparently being in the wrong place at the wrong time or being suspected of planning something that the United States considers to be illegal is enough to bring down death from the skies.
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