Has it occurred to anyone in the Obama administration that it’s not a good idea to make millions of enemies in a volatile state that has a large cache of nuclear weapons?
A study by two leading U.S. universities is criticizing the U.S. administration’s use of drone strikes against militants in Pakistan as counterproductive. But Washington considers the strikes crucial to its war against terrorists.
The report titled “Living Under Drones” is based on nine months of research and more than 130 interviews with victims, witnesses, experts, and media reports.
Conducted by Stanford/New York University, the study says drone strikes targeting militants in northwest Pakistan kill civilians as well as militants, undermine international rule of law, and may motivate additional militant attacks…
There are at least two drone programs that we know about in place. One is being run by the CIA. The other is being run by the Defense Department. Obama only approves of the “specifically identified high-value targets” for drone attack. The rest of the attacks, about 99% of them, are approved by the CIA and the Defense Department without Obama’s direct input. For those pinheads who think that that makes Obama incompetent, you have a basic lack of knowledge as to how governments function. The drone program should be shut down immediately (not something Biden, The Congress, the CIA or the Defense Department would agree to). Or at least cut back dramatically. That may happen in Obama’s second term. If it is discontinued the question becomes how should the US deal with known (and they are known) terrorists planning attacks against US interests? Anybody have an answer to that question?
I have an easy historical answer. We’ll drop bombs, lob artillery shells or launch cruise missiles and kill poorly targetted civilians, innocents, women and children and label them as insurgents or terrorists until we get caught in the lie again. Then when the NGO community or Wikileaks blows the cover story, we’ll objectify the victims with the collateral damage trope. Different weapons system, same outcome. Man this stuff must make the Nobel Committee feel proud!