Droning on: Moscow blasts show the risks of Russia’s escalating war on Ukraine

Came word Tuesday that at least eight armed drones had targeted Moscow, as Ukrainians who’ve been brutally invaded by the big, bad Russian army took the fight to the aggressor’s capital. War unleashes furies, so we blame Vladimir Putin — who, unprovoked, invaded his neighbor 15 months ago — for this.

We’re not military strategists. Still, we struggle to understand what is to be gained from Ukrainians or their sympathizers hitting civilian targets inside Russia. (Ukraine, for its part, says Kyiv was not “directly involved” but was “happy” to watch.) The attacks are likely to escalate a war that’s already being fought at a fever pitch, with more than 350,000 people killed or injured.

As for Putin and Russia, we only hope that the pain endured injects some measure of humility and sanity into their own campaign, perhaps sparking even more doubt among a populace that has grown understandably weary of the cost borne in blood and treasure. But it’s quite possible we will see the opposite result — Russians rallying around their despicable leader.

The use of drones underscores a lesson that most saw coming when U.S. Predator drones began blasting targets at the start of this century: The technology, like almost all advanced forms of warfare, was bound to fall into the hands of more and more nations and terrorist organizations and will grow ever more ubiquitous. Some are U.S. allies, some enemies; America cannot control who obtains the increasingly inexpensive equipment.

For more than a decade, the U.S. dominated the unmanned skies, choosing targets in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and elsewhere — and trying, though sometimes failing, to minimize civilian fatalities. We now live in a world where more than three dozen countries have armed drones, as do Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Boko Haram, ISIS, Hamas, Hezbollah, Hamas and the Kurdish Peshmerga.

Only the most naïve think this genie could ever get stuffed back in the bottle, but only the most cynical can be sanguine about the world’s skies becoming a Wild West for pilotless, armed aircraft.