Are Fighter Pilots and Drone Operators Soldiers, or Are They Executioners?

Some military experts predicted a few years ago that robots would fight the next war. However, their predictions appear to be slightly inaccurate, as the next war is a war being fought by robots against people. Maybe not robots in a strict sense, because unmanned aircraft that are dropping bombs in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen do not control themselves. An operator sitting in front of a computer guides them from thousands of miles way, for instance, from a base in California. The war of today is a war of remote-controlled war machines against the people their bombs target.

As this new kind of war kicked in, a new type of soldier, the drone operator, quickly followed. Just last year the U.S. Army came up with an idea to introduce a new type of decoration for this new category of soldiers. It was to be named the Distinguished Warfare Medal, and it was to be awarded for “extraordinary achievement” in the battlefield.

In February, the Department of Defense in Washington presented the graphic design of the medal and announced that its rank would be somewhat higher than that of the Purple Heart, which is awarded to soldiers wounded in the battlefield, but lower than the Silver Star, which is awarded for acts of heroism.

This inspired a heated protest by American veterans, somewhat justifiably, considering that for many centuries medals have been awarded for bravery and heroism. To demonstrate your courage you had to find yourself in an emergency. The only danger drone operators must consider is that of spilling hot coffee on themselves.

Several organizations, including the Veterans of Foreign Wars, wrote a letter to President Barack Obama requesting that the Distinguished Warfare Medal have a lower rank than the Purple Heart.

Air Force Chief Dave Blair, who instructs drone operators, presented a different point of view. In an article in Air & Space Power Journal, he wrote: “What is the difference between the risk one takes being 10,000 feet away and the one being 10,000 miles from the battlefield in the present-day armed conflicts?”* Why do we assume that the drone operator who is 10,000 miles away from the battlefield is only support for the troops, while we consider a fighter pilot equipped with two spare engines at an altitude of 10,000 feet who is completely beyond the reach of an enemy and under no realistic threat as being part of the fight?

Indeed, militants in Pakistan, Yemen, and Afghanistan have absolutely no chance of shooting down an F-16. And, there are even more advanced aircraft, as Blair says: “…fighting a war via video teleconference isn’t very honorable, we might say the same for firing a missile beyond visual range from a fighter cloaked with stealth technology. It would be hard to imagine that the same individual would feel compelled to activate his radar transponder upon contact with the enemy, just to restore honor to his kill by mitigating his technological defenses.”**

Blair wanted to show that both drone operators and fighter pilots deserve to be awarded medals equally, but he has simply proven that neither of them deserve medals. If you weigh the risks and effects of each form of warfare, fighter pilots (called up against poorly armed fighters) and drone operators better fit the definition of executioners rather than soldiers.

Being an executioner is a greatly needed profession, and a very stressful one as well. Apparently, many executioners feel remorse once they’ve worked for some time, but I’ve never heard about any executioner being awarded a medal. It is worth noting that being an executioner is a much more morally difficult occupation than that of a drone operator or a fighter pilot; an executioner usually has to witness the death of his victim and to handle the corpse afterward. A drone operator just sees a flash on his or her screen and does not have to deal with the resulting bodies. Besides, there are no bodies because they have either dissolved or disintegrated into many pieces that Pakistani, Iraqi, Yemeni and Afghan villagers then remove.

So, what should be done about the drone operators? A system designed to motivate operators is definitely needed because, clearly, there are both professionals and amateurs in this thankless profession. In the olden days, an executioner would kill a person sentenced to death by a judge or a king. The contemporary executioner, the soldier sitting behind a computer screen, every now and then kills random and innocent people (although new CIA Chief John Brennan said that drone operators basically never make mistakes, this statement should be considered with some reservations). Financial incentives for operators with a low percentage of errors would therefore be most desirable, but unfortunately from a 10,000-mile distance it is sometimes difficult to assess the effects of any bombing.

As for the medals, the matter was brought to a close by new Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, who, unlike the other politicians in Washington, fought as a soldier in Vietnam, a real war, and was even wounded and awarded the Purple Heart. He has a better understanding of the realities of war than, say, Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney and George W. Bush, none of whom have ever seen combat in spite of the fact that they sent others to the front.

Hagel has decided that the Distinguished Warfare Medal will not be awarded to anyone in the future. He also declared that drone operators are crucial to the U.S military and national security. Therefore, a new distinguishing device will be designed that will be attached to a service member’s pre-existing ribbon, in the same fashion as the Bronze Star (a medal which is not only granted for heroism; pairing the medal with a letter V on the ribbon indicates a reward for heroism).

This story is very instructive for us, the people of Western civilization, even if we disregard the discussion of U.S. military medals. We are reminded that sending fighters or drones to underdeveloped parts of the world does not cause what might be described as an armed conflict; it is an execution. This is why we should not use such methods routinely, but instead only when it is absolutely necessary.

*Editor’s note: the actual quote is: “What is the differential risk between 10,000 feet and 10,000 miles in current conflicts?”

**Editor’s note: Blair is actually quoting a conversation he had with a pilot: “’Fighting a war via video teleconference isn’t very honorable,’ we might say the same for firing a missile beyond visual range from a fighter cloaked with stealth technology…”