The existence of precision weapons is often framed as a tool allowing for reduction of civilian casualties but that's a sort of backwards logic and convenient misrepresentation, fostered in no small part by a decade of drone war emphasizing "targeted strikes."
If a "perfect" "precision weapon" was ever created it would simply be used against political dissenters directly.
Andrew Bacevich's observation that they were part of the idea that war was something we did to someone else (and with no repraisal/blowback) in part because of its precision. Instead, as you alluded, the appeture for precision was widened and more widely accepted, at least domestically in the US.
you know whats a really precise weapon?? a sword. you have to be really close to someone and really angry with them and have enough strength to really hurt them. cant have much collateral damage with a sword
We forget what was "targeted" in those "strikes:" a wedding party; a family in a car; the ambulance who came to try to save that family; a 16 year old American citizen who was looking for his father, also an American citizen also killed by a drone.
I remember when I dug into the legal basis for obamas drone strikes how interested the state dept was in finding a way to legally justify it even tho such work was meaningless
The framing goes back before drones. So-called "smart bombs" were a big part of the propaganda for the first Gulf War in 1990. The press dutifully aired video of missiles flying down bunker air shafts. In practice, these missiles weren't so precise and made up just a sliver of the ordinance used.
It is possible to use guided weapons to avoid civilian casualties. It's possible to do the opposite, or to not care.
I think the most glaring example is the R9X missile, a hellfire variant that replaces the explosive warhead with spinning, whirling blades. What it promises is fewer bystander deaths from strikes, instead of rethinking if the strike is worth making. responsiblestatecraft.org/2020/07/06/t...
Reporters are fascinated by a weapon that purportedly results in fewer instances of collateral damage, but its existence as a byproduct of endless war is often overlooked.