Drones are nondiscriminatory because excluding combat erases the combatant-noncombatant distinction.

Evidence

I have tried to show that the precision-distinction thesis rests upon a cascade of confusions and sophisms that can and should first be challenged on principle. Contrary to the widespread legend, the drone is in reality related to a nondiscriminatory weapon of a new kind: by ruling out the possibility of combat, the drone destroys the very possibility of any clear differentiation between combatants and noncombatants. — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 490

Categorization

• XREF: Core thesis that the weapon that claims precision actually destroys the very distinction ‘precision’ is supposed to respect. — connects to: Drones abolish the condition of combat that makes combatants identifiable.; Unilateral drone warfare collapses war into a one-sided putting-to-death; Drone surveillance cannot reliably distinguish combatants from civilians (+2 more)

Related

• Drones abolish the condition of combat that makes combatants identifiable. (similarity 0.95)
• Drones are less precise than rifles and grenades at discriminating targets. (similarity 0.87)
• Drone warfare leaves the mutual right to kill formally intact but substantively empty. (similarity 0.86)
• Drone surveillance cannot reliably distinguish combatants from civilians (similarity 0.85)
• Armed drones make killing a priori one-directional, converting combat into slaughter. (similarity 0.85)
• Eliminating reciprocal exposure to violence makes drones look like cowardly weapons. (similarity 0.84)
• Drone warfare creates a new ethical-political norm neither war nor peace (similarity 0.84)
• Drones resolve the guerrilla problem by depriving insurgents of any target to attack. (similarity 0.84)
• Drone war turns strategic evaluation into disconnected body counts. (similarity 0.84)
• Drone technology severs visual discrimination from physical proximity to targets. (similarity 0.83)
• Drone warfare creates a new configuration that is neither war nor peace (similarity 0.83)
• Unilateral drone warfare collapses war into a one-sided putting-to-death (similarity 0.83)
• Drones create a crisis in military ethos by contradicting traditional warrior values. (similarity 0.83)
• The drone made warfare absolutely unilateral, killing without risk of being killed (similarity 0.83)
• The drone reconciles liberal security statehood with unrestricted waging of war. (similarity 0.82)

Broader Connections

• Drone surveillance cannot reliably distinguish combatants from civilians #corroborates (0.75)
• Unilateral drone warfare collapses war into a one-sided putting-to-death #complicates (0.55)
• Drone morality inverts ethics to make unendangered killing good #exemplifies (0.50) — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 453