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Financial Times: Deadly US drone programme still controversial
In September 2011, an American drone strike in Yemen killed Anwar al-Awlaki, a cleric whom US officials said was one of the leaders of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).
The US had already been conducting drone strikes against suspected al-Qaeda terrorists for a decade. However, Mr al-Awlaki became the first US citizen to be the subject of a targeted killing — sparking a fierce debate in America about the use of executive power and civil liberties.
WNU Editor: What I find interesting about this report was the following observation ....
.... During the George W Bush administration, the US conducted around 50 drone strikes to kill suspected terrorists. The Obama administration, however, has ordered around 500 strikes, according to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism
In short .... President Obama has ordered 10 times more drone strikes than President Bush. Hmmmm .... and George Bush was labelled the cowboy?
3 comments:
However, Obama has been very hesitant in deploying ground troops to combat zones when compared to Bush; instead, air and drone strikes are his tools.
And in the grand scheme of things, a ground force is much more destabilizing and creates much more casualties on both sides than drone and air strikes.
But then again, if Bush hadn't have committed troops to his wars, would Obama learn the lesson? Would he send troops?
But as history has written it, in my opinion, Bush is the "cowboy".
Unleashing drones on the world is a bit like unleashing the bomb. Sooner or later everyone that wants it will have it but in the case of drone warfare, it is much cheaper and easier to develop. I wonder just how good are the US defenses against an attack using a drone? Whatever defenses they had weren't much use against diverted and unarmed planes on 9/11.
" I wonder just how good are the US defenses against an attack using a drone?"
Around active military units maybe pretty good. Civilian areas virtually non existent.
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