Driving in the car with my children recently, I mentioned a briefing on drone warfare that I hosted. One of my eight-year-old twins, Stone, said, "You mean that we go to the other side of the Earth and kill people?" He was incredulous.

So am I.

Last month, I heard from the family of Momina Bibi, a 68-year-old Pakistani grandmother killed by an American drone struck her as she picked okra in a field. One of her grandchildren explained how the death of Grandma would forever change their view of the sky. "We used to pray for blue skies," the child said, "because they are so beautiful." Now, however, the children of Pakistan pray for grey skies -- because drones cannot see them, and kill them, through the clouds.

More recently, I hosted a briefing by the victims of American drone warfare in Yemen. Different country, same sad story.

Something like twenty percent of the victims of American drone attacks are innocent in every sense of the word -- as pure as the driven snow. And since our illustrious "intelligence" agencies reportedly regard every adult male in the target zone as a "militant," the true percentage of innocents may be much higher.