The Dangerous Seduction of Drone Warfare

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/world/dangerous-seduction-drone-warfare



Senior Obama administration officials say our government is sharply scaling back its drone strikes in Pakistan. That’s a step in the right direction. It would be even better if the entire U.S. program of targeted killings in Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia were scrapped.

By embracing drones as a primary foreign policy tool, President Barack Obama has taken on the role of prosecutor, judge, jury, and executioner.

Without declaring a war there, U.S. forces have hit Pakistan with more than 350 drones strikes since 2004. These U.S.-engineered operations have left a death toll of somewhere between 2,500 and 3,500 people, including almost 200 children.

Despite being billed as a weapon of precision, only 2 percent of those killed in these drone strikes have been high-level Taliban or al–Qaeda operatives. Most have been either innocent people or low-level militants.

[SamKnause]

1. Senior Obama administration officials say our government is sharply scaling back its

drone strikes in Pakistan.

Translation; We will continue drone strikes.

We will continue to lie to U.S. citizens about the numerous innocent civilians we have killed and will continue to kill.

We will silence the few journalists that report on drones strikes (Jeremy Scahill), we will ramp up the propaganda machine and continue doing exactly what we have been doing.

You are either with us or against us.

Have a nice day.

[MisterP]

2. *every* new weapon we've imagined would decisively bring wars to a dead stop

and "save American lives"--the submarine, the Maxim, the airplane, the a-bomb, the h-bomb, the n-bomb, SDI, and now the drone
this has been going on for *centuries* here

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

3. It's a great PR weapon for saying "We didn't REALLY lose another war."