ABSTRACT
In this chapter, it is argued that the sanctity of human lives is an ethical obligation in every human society; but that by dint of the yet to be regulated unconventional weapons like drones, this sanctity is difficult to be preserved. Thus, it is argued that the most considered ethical impact of the deployment and use of armed drones is in its propensity to make the resort to the use of force very attractive, and to lower “the moral threshold” to kill human beings because of the distance between the drone operator and its target. This ethical bind was also recognized by U.S. President Barack Obama in his declaration at the Fort McNair National Defence University that “the very precision of drone strikes, and the necessary secrecy involved in such action, can end up shielding our government from the public scrutiny that a troop deployment invites; [and that] it can also lead a President and his team to view drone strikes as a cure-all for terrorism”. The contradictions in this enormous ethical implication are reinforced by the fact that the use of drones lowers the political cost of going to war.
