
Attack of the Drones
Drone warfare is advancing faster than the rules meant to govern it, and this report tracks both the technology and the anxiety it produces. At a US air force base, screens lock onto a civilian car driving through New Mexico as part of a training exercise; asked whether the car's occupants gave permission, the operator admits, "we're just following them with a camera." The film notes that the Air Force now trains more "desk pilots" than traditional ones, prompting comparisons to war as "a big computer game" where operators kill and then go home for dinner. Civil rights lawyer Nathan Wessler argues that US strikes in countries like Yemen, absent a declared state of war, set a dangerous precedent, especially since drone technology is neither complex nor exclusive. The report closes on Iran's capture of a US spy drone, with experts warning it could be reverse-engineered, and asks whether an uncontrolled arms race in autonomous weapons has already begun.