Drone Warfare is the first comprehensive analysis of one of the fastest- growing - and most secretive - fronts in global war: the rise of robot warfare. In 2000, the Pentagon had fewer than fifty aerial drones; ten years later, it had nearly 7,500. Drones are already a $5 billion business in the US alone; the US Air Force now trains more drone "pilots" than bomber and fighter pilots combined. Medea Benjamin provides the first extensive analysis of who is producing the drones, where they are being used, who pilots these unmanned planes, and what are the legal and moral implications. In vivid, readable style, the book also looks at what activists, lawyers, and scientists across the globe are doing to ground these weapons. Benjamin argues that the assassinations we are carrying out from the air will come back to haunt us when others start doing the same thing - to us. With a foreword by Barbara Ehrenreich
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Review
In this remarkably cogent and carefully researched book, Medea Benjamin makes it clear that drones are not just another high- tech military trinket. Drone Warfare sketches out the nightmare possibilities posed by this insane proliferation. --Barbara Ehrenreich
A compelling mix of humanity and factual data. --Foreign Policy in Focus
Thoroughly researched, hard-hitting ... so very timely, and so very much needed. --Tikkun --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
A compelling mix of humanity and factual data. --Foreign Policy in Focus
Thoroughly researched, hard-hitting ... so very timely, and so very much needed. --Tikkun --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
About the Author
MEDEA BENJAMIN is a cofounder of the peace group CODEPINK and the international human rights organization Global Exchange. A former economist with the United Nations and World Health Organization, she is the author and editor of eight books. Her articles appear regularly in publications such as the Huffington Post, CommonDreams, AlterNet and OpEd News.
--This text refers to an alternate
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
By J JANSON
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
Great background to the drone mayhem being unleashed on the Middle East, Africa, and soon the US. We are slipping into a world remote/autonomous warfare inflicted by wealthy nations on some of the poorest. This book is highly recommended as a first read on the subject.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3.6 out of 5 stars
20 reviews
34 of 42 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A 'Must-Read'
14 May 2012
By John S. Uebersax
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This new book by leading American anti-drone activist and CODEPINK co-founder Medea Benjamin is a must-read for anyone interested in the bitter reality of the ongoing US drone wars. It will be of interest to researchers, journalists, activists, ethicists, legal analysts, and the general public.
Any initial fears that this is merely a sensationalistic, superficial analysis of the problems of drone warfare quickly vanish as one begins reading. With over 300 notes and citations, the book supplies an unparalleled, sweeping perspective on the entire problem, alluding, in one way or another, to all the main issues. It contains a lot of details about drones that probably hadn't occurred to you before. (For example, did you know that drone-launched Hellfire missiles travel faster than the speed of sound? A strike victim doesn't even hear them coming.)
Overall it's an excellent, and perhaps essential starting point for research on US drone warfare.
The style is extremely readable, without loss of depth or impact. Medea Benjamin has an amazing command of the facts, a consequence of her sheer passion and commitment to the topic. There is no political agenda here -- it is not marred by 'leftist' or 'rightist' prejudice. Rather, what comes across is an intense humanitarian motivation. She is writing from the heart, with pure and trustworthy instincts, accompanied by a high degree of intellectual and journalistic skill.
Any initial fears that this is merely a sensationalistic, superficial analysis of the problems of drone warfare quickly vanish as one begins reading. With over 300 notes and citations, the book supplies an unparalleled, sweeping perspective on the entire problem, alluding, in one way or another, to all the main issues. It contains a lot of details about drones that probably hadn't occurred to you before. (For example, did you know that drone-launched Hellfire missiles travel faster than the speed of sound? A strike victim doesn't even hear them coming.)
Overall it's an excellent, and perhaps essential starting point for research on US drone warfare.
The style is extremely readable, without loss of depth or impact. Medea Benjamin has an amazing command of the facts, a consequence of her sheer passion and commitment to the topic. There is no political agenda here -- it is not marred by 'leftist' or 'rightist' prejudice. Rather, what comes across is an intense humanitarian motivation. She is writing from the heart, with pure and trustworthy instincts, accompanied by a high degree of intellectual and journalistic skill.
27 of 36 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Big Brother Wants To Party and He's Right Outside Your Bedroom Window
28 April 2012
By cvairag
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
Of the many horrors unleashed under the rubric of national security, perhaps none is as immediately and intimately threatening, or as revealing of the mindset of the 1% and their politically sympathetic camp-followers,as the radical expansion of drone warfare over the past decade, especially by the Obama administration. At least hundreds of innocent civilian lives have been lost, mutilated, or destroyed in military operations where bombs are dropped by robotically-manned aircraft, launched and directed to remote targets, by play-stations operated by U.S. military personnel, often former computer "gamers" from U.S. air bases situated halfway around the world from their victims.
In this immaculately documented study, an inimitable, true heavyweight, long-term critic of U.S. social policies (I hesitate to use the word "foreign" here), details the dreadful history of what is now the norm, the cutting-edge, if you'll have it, of U.S. military strategy and speculates on its future.
This last part ought to be of particular interest to the general reader: how drones are currently either in use or planned imminently to be in use by domestic security operatives and local law enforcement agencies for domestic survellience on - well - you've got it - the old enemy - the enemy within - the ones who are mentioned in the opening lines of the Constitution! And plans are in the works for not only survellience...
Our eyes our opened to the danger of drone proliferation: there are currently over 400 outstanding orders to be filled, and not only from U.S. military clients!
Not only is the extent of drone damage documented here - but the criminal insensitivity of such killings - where often the identity targets, and the actual degree of the victims' culpability remains unknown. This concept has been expanded by the Signature Kill type operations discussed in a book that is incumbent upon every American concerned about personal survival to actually take time out to read.
In this immaculately documented study, an inimitable, true heavyweight, long-term critic of U.S. social policies (I hesitate to use the word "foreign" here), details the dreadful history of what is now the norm, the cutting-edge, if you'll have it, of U.S. military strategy and speculates on its future.
This last part ought to be of particular interest to the general reader: how drones are currently either in use or planned imminently to be in use by domestic security operatives and local law enforcement agencies for domestic survellience on - well - you've got it - the old enemy - the enemy within - the ones who are mentioned in the opening lines of the Constitution! And plans are in the works for not only survellience...
Our eyes our opened to the danger of drone proliferation: there are currently over 400 outstanding orders to be filled, and not only from U.S. military clients!
Not only is the extent of drone damage documented here - but the criminal insensitivity of such killings - where often the identity targets, and the actual degree of the victims' culpability remains unknown. This concept has been expanded by the Signature Kill type operations discussed in a book that is incumbent upon every American concerned about personal survival to actually take time out to read.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
On Target
13 April 2013
By AmazonCustomer
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is a workman-like presentation of the genesis of drones, who manufactures them, and an exposition of the various issues associated with the current state of the art of drone warfare. It is written from a liberal point of view and, in general, is in opposition to the usage of drones to kill people. The effects of drone warfare, if it can be called that, as distinct from murder one, are well described. I recommend it highly as an introduction to a fast-moving, faster-developing change in the way we make other people feel our power.
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3.6 out of 5 stars
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