James Jeffrey served as an officer in the British Army in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
In
2009, he helped guide drones flying over Helmand Province, where he had
to make life and death decisions about whether to engage the enemy.
Speaking
to Orla Guerin, the BBC's correspondent in Pakistan, he describes how
he almost ordered a drone attack on a suspected militant thought to be
planting an improvised explosive device.
At the last minute the
strike was cancelled when he realised the potential enemy he could see
on the monitor was in fact a child playing.
Mr Jeffrey also
talked about witnessing - via a video link from a fighter jet - a
missile strike on Taliban targets in built up areas that left several
civilians dead.
Having now left the military and living in the
US, Mr Jeffrey warns that while drones are a precise and effective
weapon they have also made it "too easy to kill".
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