how drones can be good or bad for our society

Drones: how drones can be good or bad for our society

Persuasion, part 2: They’re here to stay!

            The definition of drone, "is an unmanned aircraft or ship that can navigate autonomously, without human control or beyond line of sight: the GPS of a U.S. spy drone, or any unmanned aircraft or ship that is guided remotely: a radio-controlled drone."  Drones are here to stay in this world because militarily speaking, drones have helped to reduce American soldier fatalities and disrupt major terrorist groups, but again some people believe military drones are bad. With the technological improvement of drones, they will become a major player in world efficiency in transporting goods all around the world. Not only will drones help to increase economy, but our very own way of life.

            After the September 11 event, the American government launched a major use in unmanned aerial vehicles, otherwise known as UAV's, to at first only be used for live surveillance (Procon). Later military drones were equipped with long range missiles to help with the war effort in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. The positive use of drones militarily is because fewer soldiers need to be in danger and they help to cripple terrorist groups. One major event that occurred with the use of a drone strike was when Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, was killed in his house, on August 5, 2009 (Callam, Andrew). I don't know about you, but I bet it cost a lot less than if the US military were to use soldiers to carry out the mission.  Also a survey carried out on July 18, 2013, 61% of Americans supported drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia (procon). Even though it's not 100% of the Americans on board, the use of military drones make about 193.9 million Americans out of the 317.8 million feel as the US military has the right to use drones militarily. Though other people may have different views about military drones, they can't change what has already occurred; it's inevitable due to the low cost of military drones, compared to a regular military jet with a pilot. Let's put this in perspective, the cost of one drone can range anywhere from 5-14.4 million, where as a jet, such as an f-35, will be around 153.1-199.4 million dollars (procon). In the US military's interest, it would be wise to invest some of their Air Force into militarized drones.

            Some may believe military drones are only creating more enemies for the US and think civilian casualties are disregarded by the US military. I would have to agree with some of the negatives of the use of military drones. A story I read online was about a young Pakistani girl who ran to the scene of her grandmother blown to pieces; just imagine how horrific a scene she saw on that day (Hayworth, Michael).  If I was that little girl, I probably would imagine the Americans as the enemy more than the terrorist groups.  The number of strikes and casualties according to the New America Foundation, Long War Journal, and The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, say that "around 3,500 militants in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, and Somalia have died in drone attacks. Out of the 3,500 militants killed, 8-17 percent of the people killed in drone attacks were civilians"(procon).  I'm sure almost every war committed, have had their share of civilian deaths too.  At the same time, I do understand where the unsupported population of drone warfare is coming from. After reading an article about how the American military behind the drones are not facing the fault on the civilian deaths; really no one is taking fault for the civilian deaths (procon).

             With the technological improvement of drones, they will become a major player in world efficiency in transporting goods all around the world. Not only will drones help to increase economy, but our very own way of life. An example of such a use of drones is amazon, but unfortunately in the early stages of development. The chief executive of Amazon says, he plans to expand their drone delivery system to more cities over time (Amazon).  Amazons drone delivery system is to be capable of delivering goods within a half hour, greatly reducing time of delivery.  Another plus to the use of drone delivery is that drones don't run on gas, thus making the cost of transportation cheaper.  A company in Australia, known as Zookal, says that "with drone delivery, it could reduce cost of delivery as much as 8.60$" (aussie).

            There are some down sides to a world of drone transportation, such as drone hacking, sort of say.  One incident occurred when an Australian videographer was hovering close to a triathlon event and the drone hit a runner (triathlete).  Supposedly, the videographer said "he lost control of his drone from an attacker"(triathlete).  If drones are to be the future, then they will need to improve upon security threats. A major slowdown in drone deliveries is that the FAA is reluctant to quickly legalize such a delivery system, due to raised issues of privacy (Orsini, Lauren). Already eight states have passed legislation against commercial drones concerning surveillance data collection (Orsini, Lauren). In the end sooner or later drones will become a major industry in delivering packages, it's just a matter of time technology will be sufficient enough to except the use of delivery drones worldwide.

            Drones are here to stay in this world because militarily speaking, drones have helped to reduce American soldier fatalities and disrupt major terrorist groups, but again some people believe military drones are bad. With the technological improvement of drones, they will become a major player in world efficiency in transporting goods all around the world. My next part will be about my own kind of creation of a surveillance drone.

Works Cited

"ProCon.org Launches New Website on America's Use of Drones in the War on Terror - ProCon.org." ProConorg Headlines. N.p., 19 Dec. 2013. Web. 14 Apr. 2014.

Callam, Andrew. "Drone Wars: Armed Unmanned Aerial Vehicles." International Affairs Review. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Apr. 2014.

Pew Research Center, "Global Attitudes Project," pewglobal.org, July 18, 2013

Hayworth, Michael. "Civilian Deaths Demand We Rethink Secret Drone Wars." ABC News. N.p., 23 Oct. 2013. Web. 15 Apr. 2014.

"Amazon Chief Bezos Offers Update on Groceries, Drone Delivery." - NDTVProfit.com. N.p., 13 Apr. 2014. Web. 18 Apr. 2014.

"Aussie Company Zookal to Launch Drone Delivery Service." NewsComAu. N.p., 15 Oct. 2013. Web. 18 Apr. 2014.

 "Triathlete Injured By Drone In Australia." Triathletecom. N.p., 8 Apr. 2014. Web. 18 Apr. 2014.

Orsini, Lauren. "To Deliver With Prime Air Drones, Amazon Has To Solve These 3 Problems." ReadWrite. N.p., 2 Dec. 2013. Web. 18 Apr. 2014.