HUMAN FACTORS, ETHICS AND MORALITY

The new technology for using military Drones has brought a new role in the remote warfare.  The benefits on the use of this technology are qualitative and quantitative. Mostly on reducing cost and reducing risk of the operator live. In analyzing some human factors as moral and ethical issues related to the application of the Drones in war, we have first to define  moral as “concern of the principles of wright and wrong behavior and the goodness or badness of human character and defining ethics as the body of moral principles or rules of conduct followed by and individual” (Webster, 1966).

Human factors as moral and ethics had played a big role in the warfare. For the war to be just I must have a right cause (America, 1947).  The use of force from a government should have consideration base in the international agreements, which includes the;

” principle of military necessity, the principle of distinction (between soldiers and civilians), the principle of proportionality, which says that the force must be proportional to the military objective to be achieved, and the principle of humanity, which proposes that military forces must avoid suffering and the unnecessary destruction of civilian property” (FREIBERGER, July 18, 2013).

 The new weapons have been develop with the propose to win wars, this is the goal where two or more adversaries engage on. Before the use of drones traditional manned aircrafts were use in the missions with high risk of loss of crew lives, POW, and loss of expensive aircrafts. The use of military UAS force is more effective and should always consider the moral principles of justice and good conduct. Therefore Ethics should be applied even during the extreme human conditions. Unfortunately war have the dirty side when the parts in conflict disconnect from this rules of conduct and abuse of force on killing civilians what is ant- ethical justified as collateral damage or unintentional deaths. As the philosopher Maquiavelo wrote; “The end justified the means” (Maquiavelo, 1982). If it is truth, it will be very hard to apply ethics and morality during the war. The use of drones has made easy, cheap and safe way to engage in to warfare. Usually the stronger opponent is the one with the more advance and powerful technology.

The governments before declare war to any country or criminal organization should consider the moral and ethical consequences the conflict could bring. Prosecutions for violate the rules of war had been seen in the international courts. The use of military drones as the use of nuclear bombs it is entirely human. Moral, ethical and conscious decisions with great responsibility should be taken in consideration before lives need to be taken. The present and future use of UAV in the military warfare is reality, new technologies as advance computer algorithms that allow the systems to have almost complete level of autonomic and intelligence for accomplishment of missions. USA as one of the pioneer country’s in the developed of the UAV technology and with the highest experience in the military use of the drones, need to set regulations with other countries that develop, use and commercialize this technology and create international legislation to control the design, manufacture, operation and applications of these powerful systems. As the anti-missiles systems were develop also anti-drones systems have to be developed for defense porpoise too, so we won’t become victims of our own inventions.

Reference

 

America, T. W. (1947). City of God in.

FREIBERGER, E. (July 18, 2013). Just War Theory and the Ethics of Drone Warfare.

Maquiavelo, A. (1982). The Prince.

Webster, N. (1966). Webster Dictionary.