Drone mentality

Professor Sir Hew Strachan (Perspective, 7 June) suggests that an independent Scotland should follow the 80 states that have invested in unmanned aerial vehicles or drones.

Thousands of these exist, in all sizes. Israel sells them to Russia and to the UK. China makes 25 sorts of its own.

Their cameras or weaponry are what make them expensive.

They are not a cheaper way of waging war because of the number of analysts needed to interpret the information relayed. Inaccuracies have led to thousands of civilians being killed in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Why would an independent Scotland copy America in spending billions on weapons while denying its own people the ­civilised, egalitarian society they deserve?

Georgina Smith

Kilchoan

Acharacle, Ardnamurchan