Stephen McNeil, of San Francisco, is director for peace-building work with the American Friends Service Committee, U.S. West Region. He is a member of Strawberry Creek Monthly Meeting in Berkeley.

"Cursed be he that smiteth his neighbor secretly." -- Deuteronomy 27:24

Some believe that drone attacks save U.S. lives because they do not rely on "boots on the ground" and thus service members are spared death and injury.

But what about other people's lives? Recently, as a Quaker and an American Friends Service Committee staff member, I joined a gathering of 150 interfaith folk at Princeton Theological Seminary to consider that very question.