The US military tells us these are The Bad Guys, so they are guilty, and deserve to die. The drone footage looks like a video game (admittedly a shitty one), and of course the footage doesn't show the targets' lives (if they had a family, what their favorite book is, when they had their first kiss, etc.) The clips don't even really show their faces. However, I do blame a disconnection from the consequences of battle for this kind of war fetishism. I don't believe video games, or violent films, make kids any less human or more prone to attack each other. Now, I don't want to launch into a 'kids these days' diatribe about how the human race is de-evolving into a pack of bloodthirsty, warmongering savages. Most comments are along the lines of, “Hell yeah HOOOAH BABY!” Some raise questions, including whether it’s principled, dignified or otherwise in America’s best interest to post drone prone in the first place. Some marvel at the new technology and discuss the resulting paradigm shift in warfare.

Perhaps best explaining its popularity are the thousands of YouTube commenters. Ranging from relatively detached wide shots of bombings taken by onboard cameras to startlingly graphic close-ups, the so-called “drone porn” has been a smash hit, as it were, tallying over 10 million views. With an aim of promoting UAVs domestically as well as “enlightening” our enemies, the Defense Department recently began placing the Predator and Reaper mission clips on YouTube.

Its daily missions in Afghanistan and Iraq could provide the military version of a SportsCenter highlight reel. In 2007, Creech Air Force Base was made the home of the 432d Air Expeditionary Wing, the first Air Force wing dedicated to unmanned aircraft systems. “In researching remotely piloted aircraft, I visited the stretch of Southern Nevada desert that has become to UAVs what Silicon Valley is to the device on which you’re reading this column.

Drone porn