We must not have read the same essay. You are correct that it is about state warfare but it is also about terrorists. (The word “terrorism” is in the title!)
> Drones will realize the promise of suicide terrorism
> But the threat of soft-target suicide terrorism never came to much, because a suicide bomber is a targeting system with an ego.
> But a drone is a suicide bomber without the expensive bottleneck in targeting.
Their whole point is that the reason terrorists do not employ these tactics is that suicide bombers want to be remembered for destroying the White House rather than some numbered interstate highway; even if said highway is critical national infrastructure. Drones take that ego out of the equation. They don’t care if they’re used to blow up a highway and they especially don’t care that the last thousand drones failed.
