Nononononono, not what I'm saying at all. I'm saying that, innocent, or 'guilty', if a mission is launched with a drone intending to kill a person at say, a big wedding, or at home surrounded by family, it shouldn't change our opinion of the act itself. Using a remotely operated drone is just a further abstraction of using force to achieve a political end. The pilot of a F-18 or whatever we'd use doesn't want to kill the guy he's bombing, his commanders do, and they want him dead because it should accomplish a political goal of someone else halfway around the world. All you're doing is shuffling pieces around, without changing their relative power structure. It's not the act, it's the idea that even if we were using manned missions to kill these people, that doesn't somehow make it more or less evil. Edit: It's not like if we were using high altitude bombers these guys would hate us any less. Dead is dead.The drone strikes are evidently not always killing the persons we want dead. Don't you think that matters? Is there no empathy possible for people you're killing alongside the ones you want dead?
A misunderstanding from my part, then. Still: from the perspective of villagers, there's definitely a difference between an F-18 which you can see and hear, and the sky attacking you. You can see nothing coming. It is causing perpetual fear which in my opinion makes the act just a bit more evil.
Maybe it's just too subjective. When I put myself in the shoes of these people, the US can kill me at any time, with no warning, and nothing I can do about it. Being able to see it coming doesn't enter into the calculation. Also, I seriously doubt that you'd hear the plane that launched a supersonic Hellfire missile before you died.
It's not just about being able to see it coming, it's about being able to know when it's happening and when it's over. When you can either see it coming or hear/see it leaving, you at least get a feeling of relief after it's over. You can package a lot of your anxiety and fear into a discrete pocket of time. If you don't see it coming and don't know when it's over, you have to carry that fear and anxiety with you at all times.