[exporectomy]

My point is that it's already automated. Those things I mentioned are already not hand-to-hand combat and don't have human soldiers risking their lives. So however scary some new automated weapon is, it should be no worse than existing automated weapons. What makes a robot soldier worse than a cruise missile or land mines or a bomber aircraft or a remote piloted drone? All those things can already be used by technologically superior enemies without incurring casualties themselves.

You mention attacks against a technologically advanced power (does an "enemy" become a "power" when it's a friend?), but obviously those powers will find ways to defend against them. Maybe it's just in the form of slightly more advanced "washing machines".

This fear thinking seems to come from assuming no secondary advancements occur. Suddenly robot soldiers are cheaply available and nobody develops any defense against them, either political or technological.