I don't believe that humans can be reduced to homo economicus, but as a group, government officials are remarkably sensitive to financial, political, and reputational costs. Thus, when new technologies appear to reduce the costs of using lethal force, their threshold for deciding to use lethal force correspondingly drops. If killing a suspected terrorist in Yemen or Somalia or Libya will endanger expensive manned aircraft, the lives of U.S. troops, and/or the lives of many innocent civilians, officials will reserve such killings for situations of extreme urgency and gravity (stopping another 9/11, getting Osama bin Laden). But if all that appears to be at risk is a an easily replaceable drone, officials will be tempted to use lethal force more and more casually. Rosa Brooks
About This Quote

The quote above is referring to the way that people make decisions about how they will act. The question is whether people are able to take into account the risks of doing something versus the rewards. This can be applied to other situations as well. If you are given two options of actions, one of which has a high risk and the other of which has a low risk, what will you choose?

Source: How Everything Became War And The Military Became Everything: Tales From The Pentagon

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