Moral limits on weapons apply only where adversaries are equals

Evidence

The current use of drones, in its own way, falls into place in the continuous line of such “asymmetrical wars” involving machine guns marshaled against spears or rusty old guns, in “little wars” that are already no longer heroic or even really “wars” in the same sense that a Westerner who saw himself as a Greek warrior would give to that word. If there was any repugnance felt at the use of ignoble means, it was present only in situations where the conflict was between equals, rather than simply a matter of putting down inferiors. — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 339

Categorization

• XREF: Explains the reader’s question about how the citizenry accepts the moral obligation to kill: inequality suspends the moral order of war. — connects to: Forbidden weapons were deemed acceptable in colonial wars but not between equals; War’s immunity from murder prosecutions rests on mutual reciprocity; Remote weapons make war unilateral with deaths confined to the enemy side (+3 more)

Related

• Remote weapons make war unilateral with deaths confined to the enemy side (similarity 0.87)
• Remote killing removes reciprocal constraints that traditionally shaped warrior morality. (similarity 0.86)
• Forbidden weapons were deemed acceptable in colonial wars but not between equals (similarity 0.86)
• Eliminating reciprocal exposure to violence makes drones look like cowardly weapons. (similarity 0.85)
• Violence in the Western only carries meaning within a rule-governed moral economy (similarity 0.84)
• Remote-controlled weapons treat the enemy as dangerous material to be eliminated unilaterally (similarity 0.84)
• Remote killing of humans drew less moral outrage than remote hunting of animals (similarity 0.83)
• Drone warfare creates a new configuration that is neither war nor peace (similarity 0.83)
• The armed drone resolves a centuries-old tension in political sovereignty. (similarity 0.83)
• The drone made warfare absolutely unilateral, killing without risk of being killed (similarity 0.83)
• Remote killing free from retaliation creates a moral hazard problem (similarity 0.82)
• Historical continuity of remote killing does not justify drones (similarity 0.82)
• Drone warfare pits unburdened machines against bodies bound by physical limits. (similarity 0.82)
• Drones add the remote control’s range to the weapon’s range. (similarity 0.81)
• Remote-controlled machines were proposed as a third option beyond protected men or autonomous machines (similarity 0.81)

Broader Connections

• Remote-controlled weapons treat the enemy as dangerous material to be eliminated unilaterally #expands (0.55) — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 142