In this respect, drone warfare reinforces the perverse nature of asymmetrical wars. In her recent book Drone Warfare Killing by Remote Control, Medea Benjamin, a peace activist and shrewd observer of international relations, makes a crucial point While drones make it easier to kill some bad guys, they also make it easier to go to war.

Things may, however, be starting to change, especially following the release three years ago of Joshua Oppenheimer s extraordinary documentary film, The Act of Killing. Oppenheimer records, in meticulous and horrifying detail, a group of former death squad leaders re enacting the murders they committed not, at least initially, in any spirit of confession or remorse, but rather to portray themselves as the heroes of a necessary process of national purification.