Witnessing civilian casualties distresses drone pilots and blocks self-forgiveness

Evidence

The difficulty in distinguishing combatants from civilians can result in a heavy toll on innocent victims. Video closeups of women, children, and other civilian casualties of air strikes are a source of posttrau-matic stress disorder in some drone pilots. As the neuropsychiatrist Colonel Kent McDonald put it, “collateral damage is unnerving or unsettling to these guys” (Bumiller, 2014). Self-forgiveness and peace of mind are especially difficult to achieve when one has killed for a cause that turned out to lack moral legitimacy. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 462