ICP 351 - May 2 and 4 blog discussion question

The two articles that are assigned for this week: “Robot future poses hard questions” (BBC, April 24, 2007); and, “'Gated Communities' For the War-Ravaged”(Washington Post April 23, 2007); raise a series of complex ethical dilemmas. This is especially the case if one keeps in mind the conclusion of the Bousquet article about the limits of the effectiveness of "cybernetic warfare" and the example of the US "Operation Igloo White" in Vietnam from 1967-1973 (p. 27).

I have two questions I would like you to answer:

1) Does the Washington Post article indicate that the United States has learned the lessons about the limits of cybernetic warfare or cybernetic "counter-insurgency" as discussed at the conclusion of Bousquet?

2) If the United States is still in Iraq 30 years from now (2037), and has turned over surveillance and shooting of curfew violators in Baghdad to autonomous robots (mentioned in the BBC article), what would be the ethical and moral implications of this form of mid-21st century cybernetic counter-insurgency?