I was immersed in the Pred/Reaper program for quite a few years (including some hands-on outside of ops) and I was also a user of their capabilities on the ground and in the air. The system is going to be part of a Coalition decision making process (if you don't have the stomach for the words 'kill chain') for years to come and has been since introduction in the Balkans. Just like SIGINT, AWACS, SAR (as in Sentinel, etc...), IADS EW RADAR, Satellite, RAPTOR or even a humble targeting pod adds to this picture then Pred/Reaper has the distinct advantage of reach-back to the decision makers in real time and then carrying a weapon to prosecute that target. Furthermore, ISTAR is ever more important to achieve a positive ID with a confidence level high enough for the senior commander with Engagement Authority. I can remember screaming at the CAOC over the RT about a military aircraft we had found flying over Bosnia - the 'kill chain' took too long and by the time any instructions came out the aircraft had landed and we had to go to the tanker for more gas.
BEags - I forgot about your brief spell with the buckets of sunshine, my apologies. However, things have changed since those days with Network Centric Warfare being the way things are done (you saw this with JTIDS being put into the Vickers Funbus - incredibly useful). Furthermore, today's urban CAS against COIN targets makes PID even more of a requirement for even the smallest of weapons like Hellfire.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again, our Reaper aircrew are our most experienced combat pilots having experienced the Afghan theatre 365 days a year (excluding leave); some have been on the program for over 7 years. Unless they are flying launch and recovery in theatre, then they are displaced from the combat area, but read any military doctrine in recent times and they mention that the battle-space is becoming blurred and that the enemy will not be so apparent as the past. Well in today's war in Afghanistan, the combatants on both sides may not be Afghanistan - hence we have attrocities that have happened globally in connection.
Finally, you don't have to be hand-to-hand to be a combatant. Think about Agincourt - our archers were well outside the harm of the French knights. Or submariners shooting torpedos against ships with no sub surface capability. Or the RAF during the 30s bombing the natives to keep them in check. Or an artillery battery lobbing shells at infantry 5 miles away. Using a Pred/Reaper is no different to a sniper shooting an enemy with a pistol from 1/2 a mile away.
Times are changing, the way we do our business is also changing and our enemy are changing accordingly. Live with it and accept the concept that sometimes you will have to kill them when your life is not endangered, but if you leave them on the battlefield they will soon kill someone else.
LJ