The Rise of the Drones

In 2005, atop a crumbling building in Mosul, Iraq, with gunfire popping across the city, the U.S. Army officer next to me put a dusty finger to his lips, indicating he was about to reveal something that should be kept between us. He pointed skyward and whispered, “We’ve got some extra help today.”

My first reaction was to laugh. Not because I disputed the value of the war-fighting technology in the air, but because I couldn’t believe anyone in Mosul considered it a secret. The unmanned drone aircraft flying over the city was clearly visible and as loud as a lawn mower.

Five years later, the CIA’s “secret” mission in Pakistan is equally obvious. Since 2008, the U.S. has launched more than 100 strikes in Pakistan’s tribal areas; U.S. officials, speaking on background, claim the strikes have killed more than 400 militants. The Pakistanis have professed outrage over the strikes, saying they infringe on their sovereignty and lead to civilian deaths.

Of course, there’s been no such uproar in the U.S. Should we be surprised? Traditionally, when a nation went to war, it had to invest its blood and treasure, but today’s joystick-wielding drone pilots can launch a missile strike from here at home, then hop in the minivan to meet the wife and kids for dinner. War couldn’t get any more impersonal.

CIA Director Leon Panetta, without acknowledging the extent of the program, has called it “very effective.” But despite the drones’ appeal (except among fighter pilots, one of whom recently asked me, “How would you feel if you were being replaced by robots?”), they do not offer a grand strategy for defeating al-Qaeda. As former CIA officer Bruce Riedel cautions, “The drones are a lot like attacking a beehive, one bee at a time. You can kill some very important bees, but the hive is going to remain.”

14 3/4. Reefer Sanity by Joshua Green	7. Information Wants to Be Paid For by Walter Isaacson
14. It’s Too Easy Being Green by Kai Ryssdal	6. The Kids Aren’t All Right by David Leonhardt
13. Teachers Are Fair Game by David Brooks	5. Bonfire of the Knuckleheads by Jeffrey Goldberg
12. The Rise of the Drones by Martha Raddatz	4. The Power of No by Michael Kinsley
11. Obama Is No Liberal by James Bennet	3. Boredom is Extinct by Walter Kirn
10. The Triumph of Free Speech by Jeffrey Rosen	America Is No. 2 by James Fallows
9. The Catholic Church Is Finished by Ross Douthat	1. The End of Men by Hanna Rosin
8. Deficits Matter by Megan McArdle	PLUS: More Ideas of the Year From TARP to sleeping with Tiger Woods

The world has many coming-of-age traditions: sweet sixteens, bar mitzvahs, quinceañeras. But in one African country, 'initiation' is endangering the health of girls and boys.

CHIRADZULU, Malawi — A slight frame gives her the appearance of a child, but the hardened look Grace Mwase wears makes her seem older than her 14 years. In many villages across Malawi, a largely agrarian sliver of a country in southern Africa, custom dictates that both boys and girls as young as eight attend a rite of passage known as “initiation,” after which they are no longer seen as children. The practice is most entrenched in the country's south, where Mwase's Golden Village is located.

Mwase was just 10 when she was led, along with about a dozen other girls, to remote huts outside her village during winter vacation from school in August. The girls were accompanied by older women from their village in Chiradzulu district, near the border with Mozambique. The women, known as anamkungwi, or “key leaders,” told them that when they returned to their villages they should cook and clean—and have sex. According to Mwase, most of the two weeks she spent at the initiation camp were dedicated to learning how to engage in sexual acts. She had been excited for this time with friends away from home, but that feeling quickly gave way to dread as she learned the true purpose of initiation.