When robots fight in place of soldiers, will wars have fewer casualties? Or will the world slide into non-stop conflict?
QANDI AGHA used to be a cashier in Afghanistan's Ministry of Culture. But he claims that in 2012 he was arrested by an elite US Special Forces unit and tortured for six and a half weeks. He was held under water until he felt like he was dying, says Joanne Mariner, an expert in humanitarian law for Amnesty International. "They also tied a cord around his penis so he couldn't urinate," she says. "They left it on for four days."
Agha's torture is one of many such cases recorded by Mariner for a recent report on civilian casualties of war. Demonstrations of inhumanity by trained soldiers are not uncommon, from the infamous abuse of prisoners at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib to the British Royal ...
