Deploying Predator drones that can detect a face at 25kft from Afghanistan on US soil, without any meaningful regulation or political debate, is pretty terrifying.
And drone usage is going to make it even worse. People isn't exposed anymore to the effects of being at war, so that the stronger side has no incentive to stop fighting. In the past people hated the war because of the high risk that loved ones could return in a coffin; nowadays only the enemies die, and at a convenient distance, so brainwashed masses don't develop hostility to the war but rather keep hating an enemy they have never met just because the TV says so. That's the first step to an endless state of war which is the best customer the weapon industry could dream about.
We're led to believe that there is some wall of separation between these two, and the rapidity of adoption of this tech for domestic purposes reminds us quite clearly that that isn't so.
Bend over for your ritual digital pat-down. Good citizen.
My point is not that Americans being surveilled is worse than Afghans being killed. It's that the disregard for the norms of liberal democracies (generally accepted during wars) seems to be bleeding into civilian life, and I worry that it points to an increasing authoritarian tendency in Western governments.
It's terrifying to me in the same way that it's terrifying to see policemen dressed up as soldiers during civil unrest, waving assault rifles around and barking commands like they're invading their own country.
James Madison, Constitutional Convention of 1787