Drones are perfect for that. No muss, no fuss, no need for silly Congressional resolutions!
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration’s embrace of targeted killings using armed drones risks putting the United States on a “slippery slope” into perpetual war and sets a dangerous precedent for lethal operations that other countries might adopt in the future, according to a report by a bipartisan panel that includes several former senior intelligence and military officials.
The group found that more than a decade into the era of armed drones, the American government has yet to carry out a thorough analysis of whether the costs of routine secret killing operations outweigh the benefits. The report urges the administration to conduct such an analysis and to give a public accounting of both militants and civilians killed in drone strikes.
The findings amount to a sort of report card — one that delivers middling grades — a year after President Obama gave a speech promising new guidelines for drone strikes and greater transparency about the killing operations. The report is especially critical of the secrecy that continues to envelop drone operations and questions whether they might be creating terrorists even as they are killing them.
“There is no indication that a U.S. strategy to destroy Al Qaeda has curbed the rise of Sunni Islamic extremism, deterred the establishment of Shia Islamic extremist groups or advanced long-term U.S. security interests,” the report concludes.
Saurovka. Try to track down what’s happening there. But then if our “allies” rape and murder in Syria why would it bother anyone what the national guard in Ukraine is doing?
Obama requested $500 million dollars from Congress today to arm the “neutral rebels” in Syria. WTF is a “neutral rebel?” The warmongers have apparently come to the conclusion that they can not only destroy ISIL, but they can take down Assad simultaneously by arming “neutral rebels” to the teeth. Wanna bet this doesn’t turn out as they expect? But that’s not the stupidest thing a politician did today. Clinton took a shot at Dick Cheney today. She said that “had he not gone to war in Iraq we wouldn’t have the mess that we currently have ( in the Middle East).” That’s rich coming from someone who voted “Yes” to authorize Bush to go to war in Iraq. Clinton is a mental case just like the rest of the neo-cons.
Maybe drones are appropriate for military missions in rare instances, but not in the haphazard way they are being used now. The idea that we should accept civilian casualties from drones because it doesn’t place our own soldiers at risk is morally vacant.
On the other hand, I think drones could be put to good use to protect endangered wildlife from poachers.