Saturday, February 20, 2016

Should The U.S. Embrace Drone Warfare?

Michael Hayden, NYT: To Keep America Safe, Embrace Drone Warfare

“ARE you sure they’re there?” the decision maker asks. “They” are Qaeda operatives who have been planning attacks against the United States.

“Yes, sir,” the intelligence analyst replies, ticking off the human and electronic sources of information. “We’ve got good Humint. We’ve been tracking with streaming video. Sigint’s checking in now and confirming it’s them. They’re there.”

The decision maker asks if there are civilians nearby.

“The family is in the main building. The guys we want are in the big guesthouse here.”

“They’re not very far apart.”

“Far enough.”

“Anyone in that little building now?”

“Don’t know. Probably not. We haven’t seen anyone since the Pred got capture of the target. But A.Q. uses it when they pass through here, and they pass through here a lot.”

He asks the probability of killing the targets if they use a GBU-12, a powerful 500-pound, laser-guided bomb.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: Former CIA Director Michael Hayden believes that America's drone program is essential .... and in this post he outlines why. What's my take .... after hundreds (if not thousands of drone strikes) .... the threat is getting bigger .... but absent any desire to send men on the ground to confront these threats, America's drone war will probably only escalate.

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