Nonsensical film made for moral idiots
Moral idiots are people who don't understand moral philosophy who can't seem to fathom simple logic to reason why a government would conduct drone warfare. There are simply a lot of logical problems in this movie.
- Ethan Hawke's character kills a rapist because he saw him rape (like as if rape = death penalty). But he's upset over kills where he doesn't SEEEEEEE the crimes committed (where the agency is telling him that such and such is a mass murderer; but Ethan hawke doesn't believe it). So his problem is not the drones or the agency. It's the fact that he doesn't see the crimes being committed in front of his eyes.
It shows his stupidity and human nature rather than any reality about drone warfare or agency procedures.
- The cycle of violence - It's not at all a cycle of violence. If you kill 5 terrorists, 5 other kids do not become terrorists because they saw 5 terrorist guys die. It doesn't work that way. This isn't like fighting bacteria. 5 horrible terrorists die, that's 5 less bad guys on the battlefield, their structure is weakened, their organization is weakened, their war effort is weakened. They need to replace it, but what happens when every new recruit becomes another victim? It starts to be a stupid way to fight. It makes more sense to not join that group.
- The drug-war comparison. Drugs are a business. The illegality of drugs, makes it more attractive, violent, and profitable of a business. It's a self-fueling cycle. Terrorism is not the same. The more you kill them, the weaker they become, the less likely they can wage war. They believe in terror not because it's a way of life or business. But because it is their belief. Once the believers of that violent ideology die off, they can't recruit new people.
- The movie focuses on drones. But how is that different with the jet strikes? if you're in an F16 the only difference is you don't get to see the carnage below your plane. The same number of civilians still die. In fact, more civilians die because an F16 does more damage than a hellfire missile.
- When will it end? Wars never last forever. One side has to eventually lose enough recruits and ideological steam that they will not be able to gain enough followers and funds anymore. We have defeated worse ideologies before: Imperial Japanese cult. The cult of Nazism. These were horrific regimes that were much more capable and much smarter and much better equipped than Taliban or ISIS. Why do you think the US can take care of Nazism and Imperial Japan easier than ISIS or Taliban over 70 years ago? In fact, we are more capable now than ever.
The Iraq War had what, 5000 American deaths? That's like a bad afternoon in WWII or WWI. We killed something like 40,000 terrorists. We won the Iraq War, up until we abandoned it and then in 2013, the stupidity of the Iraqi government caused the rise of ISIS.
- It's always our fault. Put troops on the ground, it's our fault. Use airstrikes/dronestrikes instead, it's still our fault. Take prisoners to interrogate, it's our fault. Don't take prisoners and kill them, it's still our fault. It's almost like as if the people arguing against drones and stuff are people who don't approve of ANY war effort by the US. It's like as if they are ideologically opposed to the US. Nothing the US does will please them except if the US is losing/surrendering/ceasefiring.
It's not always US fault. There are plenty of other players, individuals, making THEIR OWN DAAMN CHOICES. Their own moral choices.
They treat women like crap. They strap things on little kids. They plant mines and ieds. They oppress people. They specifically target the innocent, while we accidentally hit the innocent.
- The movie tries to portray the agency as if they intentionally inflict harm on civilians as a "war crime". But where is the evidence of this? Plenty of targets of drone strikes have always had terrorists. It was never "just rescue workers". It was never "just a wedding/funeral" ... It ALWAYS had a mass murderer as the main target.