( CNN ) -- Drone technology is spreading rapidly . As many as 50 countries are developing or purchasing these systems , including China , Russia , India , Pakistan , and Iran . Even non-state actors are involved . Hezbollah reportedly has deployed an Iranian-designed drone . Iran is developing a new drone aircraft with a range of more than 600 miles . These systems are used mostly for surveillance , but it is not difficult to equip the aircraft with missiles and bombs . Recently in Massachusetts , a man was arrested for plotting to place explosives on a drone aircraft and fly it into the Pentagon or the Capitol building . Private contractors are getting into the business as well . We now have companies offering drones-for-hire . What kind of a future are we creating for our children ? We face the prospect of a world in which every nation will have drone warfare capability , in which terror can rain down from the sky at any moment without warning . Military planners are developing technologies for autonomous drones , aircraft that are supposedly `` intelligent '' and can make their own decisions on when to unleash lethal force . Will we give machines the power to kill people ? The development of drone weapons raises profound moral questions about the future of war . U.S. officials are fond of drone weapons because they are inexpensive and seem to make the waging of war less costly . They allow leaders to conduct military operations without risking the lives of U.S. soldiers or drawing public disapproval . They give the false impression that war can be waged with fewer costs and risks . Any development that makes war appear to be easier or cheaper is dangerous and morally troubling . It lowers the political threshold of war . It threatens to weaken the moral presumption against the use of armed force . The use of drone aircraft perpetuates the illusion that military force is an effective means of countering terrorism and resolving political differences . We should know better by now . After 10 years of combat in Afghanistan the threat of terrorist attack and insurgent violence remains as great as ever . May 2011 was the deadliest month for Afghan civilians since the U.N. began keeping records in 2007 , the agency 's Assistance Mission in Afghanistan reported . June 's death toll was almost as high . Terrorism is essentially a political phenomenon . It can not be defeated by military means . The RAND Corporation 's 2008 report `` How Terrorist Groups End '' shows that the most effective tools against violent extremism are political processes and police operations . The U.S. government claims that drone strikes are an effective tool against al Qaeda leaders , but most of those being killed are low-level militants . Many important legal questions have been raised about drone strikes . The U.S. government arguably has legal authority to conduct military operations in Afghanistan , based on the original congressional authorization adopted after 9/11 . It is questionable , however , whether this authority extends to Pakistan , a country that is supposedly an ally of the United States . Nor do we have legal authority to launch military strikes in Yemen , Somalia and other countries where the United States is not officially engaged in armed hostilities . Force may be used by soldiers against combatants in legally authorized armed conflicts , but this right does not extend to civilians . The U.S. covert counterterrorism drone campaign is managed and operated by the CIA , an agency notorious for its past policy failures and violations of the law . Those who are conducting these raids operate in secret beyond the restraints of military discipline and are not subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice . Drone weapons are very precise , but they do not eliminate the problem of civilian casualties . White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan claimed in June that no civilians have been killed in Pakistan in the last year because of drone strikes . The White House quickly backed away from that outlandish claim , but administration officials continue to insist that so-called collateral damage is very low . Precise information about civilian casualties is impossible to obtain , but a new report from the Bureau of Investigative Journalism in the UK sheds important light on the subject . Their figures show that civilian casualties occur in about one fifth of U.S. drone attacks in Pakistan . Since the drone war began in Pakistan in 2004 , more than 2,000 people have been killed in these strikes , with as few as 386 and as many as 775 civilians among the dead , including as many as 170 children . Drone weapons raise many troubling security , legal and moral questions . Rather than pushing ahead to develop more of these systems , our government should pause to consider the consequences of this new revolution in military technology . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of David Cortright .
David Cortright : Up to 50 nations developing , buying weapons , including China , Iran , Pakistan . The prospect is a world in which every nation has drone warfare capability , he writes . Pakistan : Drones give nations false hope wars can be waged with less risk , costs . Be precise , but kill civilians : up to 775 Pakistanis . We must rethink military trend , he writes .