U.S. Reaper drones at Kandahar Airfield in Afghanistan. One is armed with two 500-lb bombs. Source: GlobalPost
Washington Post Editorial: Drone strikes are bad; no drone strikes would be worse
AT A time when Islamic jihadism has become a major threat in at least half a dozen countries, it’s important to acknowledge that the group that has posed the greatest threat to Americans and the U.S. homeland — the original al-Qaeda affiliate in Pakistan — has been devastated. By all accounts, U.S. counterterrorism actions — above all drone strikes — have eliminated several generations of the organization’s leadership and pushed its survivors into far corners of Pakistan and Afghanistan, where they have scant chance to concoct operations like that of Sept. 11, 2001.
This success, veiled by the secrecy of the U.S. operations but nonetheless very real, must be part of any evaluation of the tragic deaths of two hostages, including American Warren Weinstein, in a Jan. 15 drone strike. President Obama rightly apologized for the failure to detect the hostages inside a structure targeted by a drone and promised a review.
Update: Drones work — just ask al Qaeda -- Washington Times
WNU Editor: I have always believed that capturing and interrogating Al Qaeda fighters was (and is) the better option. We gain intelligence and and a better understanding of the enemy. But Guantanamo is now politically radioactive .... and this administration has no interest in implementing a policy of "forced" interrogation .... hence the kill policy with targeted drone attacks.
1 comment:
WNU Editor,
The WaPo article is just pushback against the bad PR.
As documented in Kill Chain, the Pentagon's own internal assesments are that instead of reducing attacks and violence, after every targetted assasination, the number of attacks and the violence of the attacks ramp upwards, as younger, more agressive and more radical commanders move up.
The targetted assasination program, has however, become the Body Count "metric", to try to sell the Terror War to the Public and Politicians as some of sucess.
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