Drones save lives

‘Drones save lives’ is the title of my piece in this morning’s Wall Street Journal. President Obama is currently receiving criticism from left and right for his policy of targeted assassination by unmanned drones. I think among a range of bad options drones are the least bad option for dealing with the threat, and explain this further in the piece which is available here.

Along the same lines readers might be interested in a debate I did last week on the same subject for Google and Intelligence Squared. The motion was ‘America’s drone campaign is both moral and effective’. I was lucky in having David Aaronovitch on my side. The other side included Clive Stafford-Smith. It was a lively evening, made infinitely livelier by Professor Christine Fair and in particular her extracting of a rather remarkable ‘mis-speak’ by Mr Stafford-Smith. The video is here.