if abraham lincoln had a drone (i don't know with a time machine or whatever)

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40. I'm guessing you are trying to derive from this an argument in favor of

the current policy of targeted assassinations of "suspected militants". Like it saves lives or something like that. "Had there be drones there wouldn't have been a Hitler."

There isn't such an argument because this would be comparing apples to oranges.

For one, it is an a-historical argument which sets up the premises in exactly such a way which is tailored to lead to the desired conclusion. It completely ignores how the real world works.

The civil war (and WWII) was a war which was waged between parties which had armies of roughly the same proportion and effectiveness. If you postulate a huge technological advantage on one side of the war then yes, it would have played out differently. That doesn't mean it would have been less deadly. It might have descended into the form of "asymmetric warfare" and taken an even larger civilian toll.

You are assuming a lot of things, such as that the "enemy commanders" are not aware of the drone threat and are not taking precautionary measures such as blending in with the civilian population. If Lincoln had drones then the civil war would perhaps have been more like the Vietnam war and less like the revolutionary war. Maybe the use of drones would have lead to the secessionists achieving their political goals, due to the collateral damage making it impossible to reconcile both halves of the country.

Second, it is not obvious that the warfare paradigm should apply to the current situation, despite what some sophists on this board like to argue using a lot of bloomy language and hot air. There were many unsuccessful attempts on Hitlers life. Had they been successful then maybe the war would have been shorter. But the Taliban are not Hitler or "the confederate states". Apples and oranges. There isn't really a good historical analogy.

Maybe pirates works. Would the British crown have been justified in sending ninja assassins into the colonies to kill people of whom the King "simply knows" they are pirates?