Drones as America's "Wunderwaffen"

At an earlier post, an anonymous commenter left the below note. I am far from an expert on weaponry or Wunderwaffen, but the note does provide food for thought:

Drones have been over sold as America's "Wunderwaffen" - what the nazis called Wonder Weapons. In the German case the expectations always outstripped their performance and they diverted scarce military resources from more established and reliable programs. We need to treat Wunderwaffen claims with skepticism. They promise a quick solution to a complex military problem that is seductive but often misleading and sometimes self defeating. Drones are not magic bullets. The rate of loss of drones to date has actually been quite high - so the loss of one over Iran should not really come as a surprise. Between 1994 and 2003 the USAF lost 50% of it's Predator drones. (There is more on drone losses here.) As the US expands it's drone program, the number of downed drones increases and along with that so increases the risk of reverse engineering by rival powers. Sometimes caution in the short term allows a temporary advantage to be preserved for a longer period

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Cheney Calls for Air Strike Over Captured Drone

It is the first ever call for an air strike over a captured drone, former Vice President Dick Cheney said on Monday that President Barack Obama should have ordered an “air strike” on Iran..

“The right response to that would have been to go in immediately after it had gone down and destroy it,” Cheney told CNN’s Erin Burnett. “You can do that from the air. You can do that with a quick air strike, and in effect make it impossible for them to benefit from having captured that drone.”

“I was told that the president had three options on his desk. He rejected all of them,” the former vice president added.

“They all involved sending somebody in to try to recover it, or if you can’t do that, admittedly that would be a difficult operation, you certainly could have gone in and destroyed it on the ground with an air strike.”

Obama Jokes about Killing People via Drones

At Saturday night's White House Correspondence Dinner, President Obama delivered some very funny lines (written by others), but about 10 jokes in he jokes about killing people via drones.

He mentions that some hot teenage music group was at the dinner. He then mentions that his daughters were big fans, but warns the group to stay away and tells them he has drones. They sneak up on you, he says.

Now, if I am actually killing people (and sometimes hitting innocents) with drones, I would think basic decency would prevent me from joking about drones on a nationally broadcast event.

As a matter of fact, I can't see how you could ever joke about drones, if you really take seriously the fact that you put killer drones in the air to kill people.

Does this President have any clue as to how serious the use of drones is?

UPDATE: Here's what the President said:

The Jonas Brothers are here; they’re out there somewhere. Sasha and Malia are huge fans; but boys, don’t get any ideas. Two words for you: predator drones. You will never see it coming. You think I’m joking?