Kill Chain

February 16, 2015
To military planners, drone warfare makes a lot of sense and embodies the "enduringly desirable attributes of âspeed, range, precision, and lethality'": it requires fewer troops on the ground, has the opportunity to kill only targeted individuals, andâtheoreticallyâdoesn't require a lengthy campaign. Yet as national security specialist Cockburn (Rumsfeld) shows in this history of the practice, the grim reality is often anything but. Cockburn's contacts in the military apparatus allow him to describe a program rooted in emotional button-pushing over the war on terror that was riddled with egos, overzealous commanders, dead civilians, and lucrative government contracts for a weapon whose performance was often less accurate than promised. Troublingly, Cockburn says, taking out a high-ranking targetâa primary goal of drone warfareâoften creates a power vacuum. As an intelligence officer noted of the situation in Iraq: "We kept decapitating the leadership of these groups, and more leaders would just appear from the ranks to take their place." The program and its effectsâboth intended and notâare ripe for a takedown and Cockburn admirably explains the strategies, intentions, and emotions that continue to surround the program. As he says in the book's closing chapter, whether it's working or not, "the assassination machine is here to stay."