"Stanford ethicist Patrick Lin argues that hiring contractors for Predator ISR operations also “opens the door for outsourcing drone strikes for the first time.” Doing so would “delegate a Constitutional responsibility that only the state has,” he said in an email to Defense One. Private military contractors “often lack the oversight and accountability we demand of military professionals. And ours is a professional military, not a band of mercenaries: they are guided by a professional code of ethics that does not exist with [contractors], even those who were once military,” he said."
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