However, that type of comparison is erroneous. To evaluate it properly, the drone should be set alongside weapons currently available for the same tactical function. For liquidating Osama bin Laden, the choice was between a drone and a commando raid, not between a drone and a Dresden-like bombing of Abbottabad. If one avoids being misled by some external attribute, the right form of comparison involves not a similarity of forms but an equivalence of functions.

Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, loc. 467