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Kill Chain is the essential history of drone warfare, a development in military technology that, as Andrew Cockburn demonstrates, has its origins in long-buried secret programmes dating to US military interventions in Vietnam and Yugoslavia. Cockburn follows the links in a chain that stretches from the White House, through the drone command center in Nevada, to the skies of Helmand Province.
The book reveals the powerful interests-military, CIA and corporate-that turned the Pentagon away from manned aircraft and boots on the ground to killing by remote control. Cockburn uncovers the technological breakthroughs, the revolution in military philosophy, and the devastating collateral damage resulting from assassinations allegedly targeted with pinpoint precision.
Vivid, powerful and chilling, Kill Chain draws on sources deep in the military and intelligence establishment to lay bare the failure of the modern American way of war.
About the author
Andrew Cockburn is a writer and lecturer on defense and national affairs, and is also the author of several nonfiction books. He has written for the New York Times, New Yorker, Playboy, Vanity Fair, and National Geographic, among others. He currently lives in Washington, DC.
Summary
Surveillance, technology, war, and the failed US policy of remote killing
Report
This brilliant book tells us how computers kill soldiers and civilians, and explains with bone-chilling clarity how generalship gave way to microchips from Vietnam to Afghanistan. A blood-curdling account of the rise of robot warfare, a great story, and a prophecy to be read and heeded. Tim Weiner, author of Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA
