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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsUse of Drones for Killings Risks a War Without End, Panel Concludes in Report
WASHINGTON The Obama administrations 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.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/26/world/use-of-drones-for-killings-risks-a-war-without-end-panel-concludes-in-report.html?_r=0
I hope the next president rejects the Obama Doctrine.
SammyWinstonJack
(44,129 posts)morningfog
(18,115 posts)grahamhgreen
(15,741 posts)liberal N proud
(60,332 posts)ReRe
(10,597 posts)Hasn't perpetual war been the MO since around 1947-48? It's one that worked, too. We've been a MIC ever since. It's a damn shame that so many citizens in this country don't know what the MIC is, let alone how their lives have been shaped by it all these years.
I've been saying it for years: "We're gonna get it one of these days."
As long as there is a MIC, we are NOT truly free. Someone else is the master of our destinies.
Savannahmann
(3,891 posts)I mean, next we'll be hearing that they've conducted a very expensive, and very thorough report that a pot of boiling water can burn you. NASA is due to report that the sun appears to rise in the east every morning without fail. It's almost like magic or something.
News flash, water is wet. A new report from the EPA has determined that water is a key component in the ability to get wet.
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)Orwell was prescient, in so many ways.
PeoViejo
(2,178 posts)Kill an innocent civilian and the family of the victim will most likely swear a Blood Oath which demands revenge. The Pentagon figures they can pay off the family, but it doesn't prevent relatives or members of the tribe to become radicalized and join the Jihad. These folks have a long memory that can span many Generations.
Even if the Drone attacks stopped Tomorrow, the revenge attacks will continue for a very long time.
The Daddy Warbucks have made their killing in more ways than one. They have their loot and their gated communities to shield them. Like the poor tribals who are the innocent victims of the Hellfire Missiles, it will likely be innocent civilians who are the victims of revenge.