Remote weapons make war unilateral with deaths confined to the enemy side

Evidence

Once the remotely controlled machine becomes a weapon of war, it is the enemy who is treated as a dangerous material. He can be eliminated from afar as one watches on a screen, softly enclosed within a climatized “safe zone.” Asymmetrical warfare becomes radicalized, unilateral. Of course people would still die, but only on one side. — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 142 (#expands, via linked claim)

Using new means, the drone procures for its operators an even greater sense of invulnerability. Today as yesterday, the radical imbalance in exposure to death leads to a redefinition of relations of hostility and of the very sense of what is called “waging war.” Warfare, by distancing itself totally from the model of hand-to-hand combat, becomes something quite different, a “state of violence” of a different kind. It degenerates into slaughter or hunting. One no longer fights the enemy; one eliminates him, as one shoots rabbits. — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 332 (#expands, via linked claim)

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 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Precision weaponry expands rather than confines the battlefield to the whole world.; Remote warfare will shift trauma study from victims to perpetrators; Telechiric warfare was predicted to radicalize imperial asymmetry rather than end war (+17 more)

Related

• Remote-controlled weapons treat the enemy as dangerous material to be eliminated unilaterally (similarity 0.93)
• Drone-weaponized remote control radicalizes war into one-sided killing from safe zones (similarity 0.91)
• The drone made warfare absolutely unilateral, killing without risk of being killed (similarity 0.90)
• Remote warfare will shift trauma study from victims to perpetrators (similarity 0.89)
• Telechiric warfare was predicted to radicalize imperial asymmetry rather than end war (similarity 0.88)
• Radical protection from death transforms war into one-sided slaughter or hunting (similarity 0.88)
• Unilateral drone warfare collapses war into a one-sided putting-to-death (similarity 0.88)
• Drone warfare pits unburdened machines against bodies bound by physical limits. (similarity 0.87)
• Remote-controlled warfare was predicted to radicalize the asymmetry between imperial powers and colonized peoples (similarity 0.87)
• Moral limits on weapons apply only where adversaries are equals (similarity 0.87)
• Remote-controlled machines were proposed as a third option beyond protected men or autonomous machines (similarity 0.87)
• Remote killing removes reciprocal constraints that traditionally shaped warrior morality. (similarity 0.87)
• Drone warfare creates a new configuration that is neither war nor peace (similarity 0.86)
• Armed drones make killing a priori one-directional, converting combat into slaughter. (similarity 0.86)
• Modern drone asymmetry is a continuation of colonial weapons double standards (similarity 0.85)

Broader Connections

• Remote-controlled weapons treat the enemy as dangerous material to be eliminated unilaterally #expands (0.80) — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 142
• Extreme asymmetry in vulnerability transforms war into hunting or slaughter #expands (0.75) — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 332
• Moral limits on weapons apply only where adversaries are equals #expands (0.70) — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 339
• Drone warfare establishes a norm neither war nor peace via imperial immunity #expands (0.60)
• Drone warfare creates a new configuration that is neither war nor peace #expands (0.60) — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 1
• Drone warfare operates everywhere rather than only on defined battlefields #qualifies (0.55) — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 827