Morality
War
has been rationalized as moral because there are far greater evils than war.
Morality is a topic that has been discussed for millennia and truly culminated
with the dropping of the atomic bomb on Japan. Issues of the use of moral
lethal action mostly lays on those who give the orders. However, moral actors
such as soldiers, airmen, and marines, must make the final call when it comes
to pulling the trigger. Unmanned aerial systems (UAS) are hardly the first tool
of war to be used in a standoff fashion. Physical dislocation from the tool
does not divorce the moral actor from the onus of moral accountability. Until
UAS become a means of combat which cannot be directed at a specific military
target, they fall under the legal rights of the Law of Armed Conflict
(Hauptman, 2013). As with any weapon, UAS remain moral as long as their
operators and leaders remain moral.
Ethics
War defined by ethics can be a
tricky business. How we as humans contrive moral behavior in the world around
us can sometimes have lethal consequences; especially in the case of war. One
argument against use of UAS in warfare has been used in the past: (the standoff
argument) was used many years ago when the bow and arrow were the peak of
military technology. However, an asymmetric advantage is not necessarily an
unethical advantage. Deterrence can be an ethical tactic. An overwhelming
advantage like that of UAS can in some sense be considered psychological
warfare that may cause an adversarial combatant to think twice about going to
war. Today, UAS designed to kill still have a “human heart” at the other end of
the machine brain. As long as this is the case, moral action is still
achievable and UAS can be considered an ethical weapon in warfare.
Human
Factors
Adlai Stevenson once said that,
“it’s hard to lead the cavalry charge if you think you look funny on a horse.”
Because UAS are such a new endeavor at the attempted scale, there are bound to
be consequences we must face head on. Some have linked issues of morality and
ethics with UAS operators and the nature of their work. A study published in
the Journal of Anxiety Disorders in
2014 noted that only 4.3 percent of operators surveyed reported signs
associated with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (Chappelle, Goodman,
Reardon, & Thompson, 2014). Those operators who had been on station longer
or had worked more than 51 hours in a week were more likely to report these
signs (Chappelle et al., 2014). The study seems to point more to the effect of
sleep deprivation and station dissatisfaction than with concerns with the
morality of their work. The majority of UAS operators think what they do is
moral and ethical though the media would like to focus on those who do not.
References
Chappelle,
W., Goodman, T., Reardon, L., & Thompson, W. (2014). An analysis of post traumatic stress symptoms in United States
air force drone operators. Journal of
Anxiety Disorders, 28(5),
480487. doi:10.1016/j.janxdis.2014.05.003. Retrieved from http://ac.els-cdn.com.ezproxy.libproxy.db.erau.edu/S0887618514000656/1-s2.0-S0887618514000656-main.pdf?_tid=839145d8-3a72-11e7-866d-00000aab0f02&acdnat=1494965096_5f2f5104e3813f0c497ae8b44196c21e
Hauptman,
A. (2013). Autonomous weapons and the law of armed conflict. Military Law Review, 218, 170. Retrieved from https://www.usnwc.edu/getattachment
/a2ce46e7-1c81-4956-a2f3-c8190837afa4/Adapting-the-Law-of-Armed-Conflict-to-Autonomous- We.aspx
Comments
Post a Comment