Military Drones

John Amato wrote an editorial in crooksandliars arguing that the military should not have the authority to use drones to spy on citizens within the U.S, stating “using drones on U.S soil is repulsive and should terrify people because we know where it will lead”. At first glance, I completely disagreed with this stance because I imagined a world with air-operated-drones flying about and everybody being just dandy; after all, isn’t that what our military did in Afghanistan? In addition, Mr. Amato failed to mention where this so-called place was that everybody knew we were headed… a stable society with more military and less criminals? Seemed pretty ideal to me. But after watching the clip that Mr. Amato posted along with his blog, a short document about drones catching a few cow thieves in Dakota, I realized that military in the U.S should not be used to spy on U.S citizens. For one, using drones in public areas would cause too much distraction and chaos. Our society isn’t ready for giant aircrafts to follow them around while they walk their dogs… not yet at least. I did however enjoy hearing about what these drones have accomplished so far in the United States, catching a few cow thieves. Surly that is not all they have done, but for the time being that is all these drones have been recognized for- catching a few farm looters. Besides, it seems a tad excessive to employ hundreds of people and spend millions of dollars just to replace the average sheriff (and possibly catch a few criminals). Our police force already has helicopters and fancy equipment, is it really necessary to involve the military? Using drones in every day civilian life would be the equivalent of having an FBI agent stationed at every public venue. Another argument made by Mr. Amato was that the U.S military swore to never become involved within the States in civil matters such as common police work, and by using these 30,000 drones within the next 8 years the military would be in direct violation of their previous statement. I’m not one to argue privacy much when it comes to things such as TFA security, but if the military decides to approach congress with this “spectacular” idea of using military drones in accordance with the police, then the first thing I plan to argue will be my civil liberties concerning privacy.