"Did we just kill a kid?" he asked the man sitting next to him. "Yeah, I guess that was a kid," the pilot replied.
Der Spiegel examines the strange character of remote warfare, offering an inside look at the experiences of the pilots who operate Air Force drones. After a work shift that might include blowing up human beings on the other side of the Earth, these pilots attempt to switch back to their normal lives and families. Many struggle with post-traumatic stress and sleeping disorders. After a while, many decide they won't sign on again, unable to muster the enthusiasm of colleagues who arrive saying things like, "so what motherfucker is going to die today?"
Modern warfare is as invisible as a thought, deprived of its meaning by distance. It is no unfettered war, but one that is controlled from small high-tech centers in various places in the world. The new (way of conducting) war is supposed to be more precise than the old one, which is why some call it "more humane." It's the war of an intellectual, a war United States President Barack Obama has promoted more than any of his predecessors.
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