I was thinking mainly along the lines of using it in regular combat

US drones in Pakistan usually don't strike in regular combat but strike a house while people sleep in it.

indiscriminately killing protesters

If you want to kill protesters you don't need drones. You can simply shoot into the mass. In most cases that however doesn't make sense and is no effective move.

If you want to understand warfare you have to move past the standard spin.

I wasn't aware of this, do you have a source on that?

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/aug/20/us-drones-strikes-target-rescuers-pakistan

Regardless, the number of civilian casualties from drone strikes is definitely too high, from what I know.

The fact that civilian casualties exists doesn't show that a military violates ethical standards. Shooting on rescues on the other hand is a violation of ethical standards.

From a military standpoint there's an advantage to be gained by killing the doctors of the other side, from an ethical perspective it's bad and there's international law against it.

The US tries to maximize military objectives instead of ethical ones.