successful drone strike in Iraq was directed by ordinary soldiers for the first time, which suggested that soldiers may one day 'fight' without going near a battlefield.

For the time being human beings are likely to remain part of the 'kill-chain', but it may not be long before autonomous robots make their own decisions about when to fire and who to shoot at .

In his new book Wired for War, the robotics expert Pete Singer has speculated that these machines may usher in a new era of "cost-free war" that makes war more tempting and attractive. Other critics warn of a 'robot arms race' and even that such weapons may be 'reverse-engineered' by terrorists and used against their makers. Supporters of robotics claim that robots will eliminate war crimes, since machines will not be moved by human emotions such as anger or revenge. But the killing of civilians in modern warfare is not necessarily due to emotion, but to rational calculation or incidental 'collateral damage' and it is difficult to see how machines can reduce this tendency.

In 1970, the commander in Vietnam, General Westmoreland, looked forward to military developments that "will replace wherever possible the man with the machine". That future may be coming closer, as the Pentagon dreams of a Robocop army policing the world's dark places.

Last month the New York Times reported that Barack Obama intends to de-emphasise the promotion of democracy in Pakistan and intensify the use of drones along the Afghan border. Meanwhile the bodies continue to pile up and the political and social problems that make countries like Pakistan so unstable receive little attention. A single Predator costs $4.5m.

It is tempting to ask what might happen if money and resources were poured into Pakistan's secular educational system, where madrassas often constitute the only form of available in a society that currently spends only 2.6 per cent of its GDP on education. We might also ask whether the longterm stability of the country might be better assured by supporting its fragile but still vibrant civil society, instead of investing in high-tech weaponry that kills Pashtun peasants by remote control.