An in-depth examination of why our spies keep getting it wrong due to an over reliance on drones, data dumps, and misguided surveillance. An in-depth examination of why our spies keep getting it wrong: an over-reliance on drones, data dumps, and misguided surveillance. Why do seemingly successful wars never seem to end? The problem centers on drones, now accumulated in the thousands, the front end of a spying and killing machine that is disconnected from either security or safety. Drones, however, are only part of the problem. William Arkin shows that security is actually undermined by an impulse to gather as much data as possible, the appetite and the theory both skewed towards the notion that no amount is too much. And yet the very endeavor of putting fewer humans in potential danger in fact places everyone in greater danger. Wars officially end, but the Data Machine lives on forever.