Learning from Past Military Mistakes

With unmanned missiles and weapons systems becoming an increasing reality, the future for a world with autonomous war weapons is an urgent political and ethical concern. Robert Sparrow’s article, Predators or Plowshares?, illuminates the very real threat of a weapons system that can initiate conflict on “accident” as soon as this is considered an advantage. However the current model for war turns human soldiers into similarly autonomous machines that are trained to kill without considering consequences. This industrial nature of converting humans into machines seems exacerbated by removing all sensibilities of having to perform violent tasks behind a computer screen across the world. Many of these fears are similar to the same concerns following the Vietnam War with popular action films such as Rambo or Robocop that would pit this kind of war industrial complex against the rationality of human consciousness. These UAV systems will be forced to be held under global control otherwise countries that ignore the ethical consequences of creating an autonomous army will have the capability of unplanned and accidental destruction of regions of the world. Military responsibility must become an issue that the world population must begin to acknowledge similar to the fears surrounding nuclear weapons following World War 2. Hopefully UMS arms control can become a reality before these types of weapons are tried in a war simply to understand potential consequences. Hiroshima and Nagasaki should serve as ongoing reminders that massive destruction during warfare is not necessary to assert dominance in the global community. While the rest of the world seems to be racing in order to develop their own nuclear weapons, Japan has refrained from creating this kind of weapon to demonstrate a more peaceful stance in international negotiation. Although some argue that they are only in this position because of protection from countries that possess these weapons, Japan advocates diplomatic resolution over engaging in further military industrialization. Hopefully the rest of the world can abide by a similar goal for the future rather than furthering their necessity to grow economies off of the profits from a military complex.