No Exit

Many of the concerns I've seen expressed about drones--now in use by 70 nations--don't hold up when you think about them for a few months. Pacifists, who oppose drones, tanks, and aircraft carriers, have a consistent position. Others, not so. Those who believe that we should send a policeman to arrest al Qaida and bring people back for a fair trial would be consistent if they also held that when Hitler declared war on us in 1941 we should have sent a policeman to Berlin to arrest Hitler and bring him back for a fair trial. Those who argue that the President has suddenly acquired too much lethal power might want to consider the special telephone an aide carries beside the President, who can pick up the phone and nuke an entire nation. We might as well face the likelihood that some wars in this century will be fought with robots and fought in any section of the world the two sides can reach. Times change. Methods change. We will need new rules. But in the current predator drone war against al Qaida and the Taliban lurks a huge problem. How will we know if we've won or lost? Will this war continue for 200 years? What is the exit strategy?