But what would you rather have. A place being carpet bombed and hundreds of people dying or a few innocent casualties from a drone strike? Yes all of us want 0, and that's the intention every day. I think drones do actually lower this number closer and closer to zero. We're also saying that we don't need to send US boots on the ground in as many areas as we had to.
It's scary to think about it but imagine if we have really small drones that can target individuals. Remember the first Ant-man movie? Something that small that's equipped with a toxin syringe. Send in a swarm to make sure at least one hits the target. That should reduce civilian casualty provided the drones can accurately identify and tag their target.
You should watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAJfyDTTHE4
It shows the world where micro machines are used to pollinate flowers. They were design as automated robots but of course the government wanted a piece of the tech so they modified them to spy on people. There's more to the story and it actually ends with a tragedy, but I won't spoil it for you
Fun fact, they managed to make a real flying bee drone this year. Future may come sooner than we think.