In the October 2008 edition of the magazine Unmanned Systems, the front page is covered with a photo of the Northrop Grumman UCAS-D demonstrator unmanned fighter aircraft with the words Dirty Jobs for Unmanned Systems printed at the bottom of the page. Throughout the magazine articles and news reports are presented of unmanned system used in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. These include the iRobot Packbot, which is a bomb disposal robot costing around $115000 each and the Predator unmanned aircraft that has a price tag of approximately $40 million for a system consisting of the aircraft, spares and a ground station.
The wording on the front page made me think…
…what is the true value of life? Thousands of soldiers have died in Iraq trying to dispose of homemade bombs, resulting in the introduction of the Packbot into the war scene to reduce the risk of a soldier getting killed. Does this then put the price of a foot-soldier on $115000?
In the same magazine an interview is published with James Hassik, the author of the book Arms and Innovation. He comments that the premature introduction of the Predator unmanned aircraft into the Bosnian war and then later on in the war in Iraq and Afghanistan was directly due to the risk of losing a human pilot. Does this then put the price of a military pilot on $40 million?
What is a human life worth? What happens if the unwanted child of a rich family or the unasked for child of a prostitute is aborted due to inconvenience or other reasons? What if that child was critical for the future of us all? Does that child then have a price tag of $100 (for the abortion) or $40 million on his or her head?
Psa 139:15 You know me inside and out, you know every bone in my body; You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit, how I was sculpted from nothing into something.
Psa 139:16 Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth; all the stages of my life were spread out before you, The days of my life all prepared before I’d even lived one day.
…thinksMe
