Drones are morally justified by preventing one’s own casualties

Evidence

His thesis is based on what he calls the “principle of unnecessary risk,” according to which it is “wrong to command someone to take on unnecessary potentially lethal risk.” His reasoning runs as follows: “I argue that we have a duty to protect an agent engaged in a justified act from harm to the greatest extent possible, so long as that protection does not interfere with the agent’s ability to act justly. UAVs afford precisely such protection. Therefore, we are obligated to employ UAV weapon systems if it can be shown that their use does not significantly reduce a warfighter’s operational capacity.” — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 455 (#responds-to, via linked claim)

According to this view of military morality, to kill while exposing one’s own life is bad; to take lives without ever endangering one’s own is good. That first principle of drone necroethics is, paradoxically, vitalist. And it is in accordance with this logic that the drone can be said to be a “humanitarian” weapon: the humanitarian imperative is to save lives. And the drone does indeed save our lives. It is therefore a humanitarian technology. QED. — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 453 (#contradicts, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Jus in bello norms applied to drones convert combat ethics into necroethics; Kamikaze and drone embody opposing economic and ethical regimes; Drone morality inverts ethics to make unendangered killing good — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 453 (+18 more)

Related

• Drone morality inverts ethics to make unendangered killing good (similarity 0.94)
• Drones’ necroethics embody a nationalism of self-preservation (similarity 0.90)
• Drones fuse killing and caring into an integrated humilitarian power (similarity 0.90)
• Jus in bello norms applied to drones convert combat ethics into necroethics (similarity 0.89)
• Humanitarian drone justification rests on a logic of the lesser evil (similarity 0.88)
• Remote killing free from retaliation creates a moral hazard problem (similarity 0.88)
• The principle of unnecessary risk makes drone use morally obligatory (similarity 0.88)
• The drone state aims to replace mobilized citizen bodies with mechanical agents. (similarity 0.87)
• Drone warfare establishes a norm neither war nor peace via imperial immunity (similarity 0.86)
• Drones lower political, economic, and ethical costs of war (similarity 0.86)
• Risk-free drone operators morally resemble assassins, not soldiers (similarity 0.86)
• Drone warfare adopts assassination ethics while refusing assassination’s self-sacrifice (similarity 0.86)
• Drones create a moral hazard that shifts risk onto others. (similarity 0.86)
• The drone exemplifies the moral hazard of acting without bearing costs (similarity 0.86)
• Zero-risk warfare implies radical inequality in the value of lives (similarity 0.85)

Broader Connections

• The principle of unnecessary risk makes drone use morally obligatory #responds-to (0.80) — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 455
• Drone morality inverts ethics to make unendangered killing good #contradicts (0.70) — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 453
• Risk-free drone operators morally resemble assassins, not soldiers #qualifies (0.60) — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 509
• Drone warfare adopts assassination ethics while refusing assassination’s self-sacrifice #qualifies (0.60)
• Humanitarian drone justification rests on a logic of the lesser evil #exemplifies (0.50) — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 463
• Drones’ necroethics embody a nationalism of self-preservation #expands (0.50)
• The drone exemplifies the moral hazard of acting without bearing costs #exemplifies (0.50)
• Drones fuse killing and caring into an integrated humilitarian power #expands (0.40)
• Drones create a moral hazard that shifts risk onto others. #contradicts (0.40) — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 588
• Historical continuity of remote killing does not justify drones #complicates (0.40) — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 337
• Drone design produces a strong moral buffering effect on operators #expands (0.30) — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 407