Thanks to Tom W for raising the quality of the comments. I dispute, however, his comment that "There is little difference between firing an artillery shell over many kilometers and launching an armed drone". The big difference is that the artillery battery is somewhere in theatre while the drone operator is thousands of kilometres away, in a relatively safe environment. If we care enough about engagement in a particular war, we should be prepared to put skin in the game, boots on the ground, young men and women in harm's way. By making it possible to fight wars without skin in the game (or as much skin in the game) drones lower the political threshold and make acceptable wars that would not have been considered without the drone option.