Eye in the Sky Brings Drone Warfare Home

According to a 2015 report from The Intercept, nearly 90% of people killed by drone warfare were not the intended target. But Barack Obama’s cool made the cognitive dissonance so easy that his supporters suspended disbelief as a means to overlooking America’s deadly Eye in the Sky. The film of the same name with Helen Mirren, Alan Rickman and Aaron Paul does at least give us pause and presents a potential scenario of how a course of action plays out on legal, moral and political terms.

The situation begins with the path of least resistance for the political decision makers. High value operatives in the War on Terror are congregating on a location, and the capture order goes into effect. But as in all things military and movie related, events go awry and turning on the kill switch with a little hell fire becomes the next viable option.

Unfortunately, that goes beyond the approved parameters for the UK Attorney General and assorted government ministers. They first stammer because one target is an American citizen and another is British. Helen Mirren, on the other hand, doesn’t bother herself with pleasantries like the Magna Carta or any writ of latin antiquity to offset the gains that a military strike will yield.

While England Slept

Nonetheless, as operational commander, Colonel Katherine Powell is completely at the mercy of the British civilian command, and as the COBRA participants dither in a stereotypically English fashion, Mirren’s fumes almost fog the screen. Even so, you get a real sense of having human beings thrust into a situation that has no rights answers, and how individual strengths and weaknesses impact the way forward.

This is especially prevalent in the Minister of Foreign Affairs who definitely doesn't conjure the decisiveness of Winston Churchill. Instead, he looks like he deluded himself into thinking his position wouldn't involve life and death decisions and will do anything to push the final decision elsewhere.

The ante is upped when it becomes clear that a multi pronged suicide bombing is about to take place. The expediency obviously kicks into high gear, and the back and forth between military, civilian and legal leaves the preexisting human flaws even more exposed.

So of course the cost of doing nothing and letting the attacks forward must be weighed against the immediate collateral damage of reigning fire from the sky. This becomes especially pronounced as the collateral damage suddenly gets a face and a small, precociously cute one at that. “How many other other children will die in the suicide attacks,” Rickman compartmentalizes the choice from the military end.

Another Casualty of War is Innocence

Lower on the hierarchy, Aaron Paul draws duty that day to press the button, and while he’s well covered in regards to those above issuing orders, he represents all the soldiers who are faced with tradeoffs that compromise their ideals.

His heart weighing heavily on you, Mirren still seems pretty soulless in her blind decisiveness. The hardened exterior probably mirrors a core that can suspend humanity based on making a lifetime of by-the-numbers decisions.

The US role gets no introspection, though, and the legality of killing an American citizen is nothing more than senseless philosophical gymnastics to our Secretary of State.

The Brits dabble in the unsavory too, and that means politics. “If Al-Shabab kill 80 people, we win the propaganda war. If we kill one child, they do. So, we don't do it,” the conversation turns in London.

Drone Warfare in the Real World

The political waverers left off the hook for this moment, that type of thinking is probably more like it. But whether that’s fair or not, Eye in the Sky proceeds to great dramatic effect. This as all the compelling arguments are run up against the clock and across multiple layers of human complexity and ethical conundrum. The real life comparisons are obviously unavoidable.

What probably doesn’t come into play is an actual face - just ask Joseph Stalin. “One death is a tragedy, a million is a statistic,” he long ago laid out by-the-numbers decision making in its basest form.

That goes a long way to explaining the 90% Drone Warfare mistake rate and must be extrapolated to justify full scale wars for a greater good that usually doesn’t come. Too bad we can’t put a face on every victim, and even though Eye in the Sky does on multiple fronts, it won’t be any time soon before we do.