Andrew Cockburn's "Kill Chain" The Folly of Machine Warfare by FRANKLIN C. SPINNEY

Weekend Edition March 27-29, 2015 | http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/03/27/the-folly-of-machine-warfare/

Andrew Cockburn's "Kill Chain"

The Folly of Machine Warfare

by FRANKLIN C. SPINNEY

Caveat emptor: Andrew Cockburn, the author of Kill Chain: the Rise of the High-Tech Assassins, is a friend of thirty-five years, so I am biased, proudly so in this case.  While I know what Cockburn can do, I must admit I was literally blown away by this book. And I am no stranger to this subject, having worked as an engineer-analyst in the Office of the Secretary of Defense in the Pentagon for 28 years.
What makes Cockburn’s book so powerful, in my opinion, is not only his sourcing and detail (which are amazing), but the fact that he has written a book that is at once overwhelming in terms of information, yet so well written, it is accessible to the general reader.  It is a page turner.  He dissects the rise of drone warfare and examines its conduct in excruciating detail from the point of view of the targeteers in the CIA and the White House, to the controllers in front of video screens, to the effects on the people at the receiving end of the attack.