Bring Our Boys Back, Send Our Drones Out. RPAs or Spec Ops? Critical Comparison and Analysis of Counter-Terrorism Practices

The struggle to counter terrorism has been altered by the exponential technological developments we have witnessed in the past four decades. Following the ever-growing will to reduce losses amongst “our boys”, soldiers are replaced by Remotely Piloted Aircrafts (RPAs). Exclusive usage of technology in place of men brings a societal detachment from the atrocities of a war conducted “somewhere else”. Drone strikes, completely removing the human element from the war, have proven counterproductive when considering the on-the-ground narrative, serving what ISIS propaganda needs on a silver tray whilst Western societies feel increasingly removed from the conflict. The narrative of drone strikes ‘surgical precision’ clashes with the growing number of civilian casualties this practice has been causing. The paper therefore analyses and compares it with special forces operations, especially in the framework of the ongoing Global War On Terror, focusing on Al Qaeda and ISIS targets. The objective is providing critical comparison and analysis of these counter-terrorism practices, taking into consideration hyper-technological weapons in asymmetric conflicts, their impact on seemingly never-ending wars against jihadist terrorism, and eventual ‘new’ best practices to be adopted.