Ok, since I, like most everyone else, doesn’t live in some remote compound from which I never emerge, how does a UAV strike on me have less Compartmentalization, Stealth, and Deniability than:
1. A government agent putting a bomb under my car
2 A government agent stabbing me in the ankle with a poisoned umbrella
Both of these options require fewer people and are stealthier than a UAV strike, the bomb under my car is as stealthy, and the poison umbrella is stealthier.
Points taken. I did not claim that drones are more advantageous that traditional wetwork operations, only that they have their own advantages which will become stronger over time. Of the methods you posit both are stealthy. The umbrella is both stealthy and deniable, while the car bomb will require significant post-op effort to acheive deniablity. I am not so sure about compartmentalization in either case. Both require significant planning: the target’s schedule must be determined, the target’s habits analyzed, the target’s countermeasures defeated. The operations must run over a period of time, and the longer they run the more operatives may become involved and more evidence is produced. As I said elsewhere, with a UAV there need only be two people aware of the target, and they are free to monitor him at their leisure and choose the perfect moment for the kill.