Barack Obama did something yesterday that government leaders tend not to do: He talked about the CIA drone war in Pakistan.
This admission–which, it should be pointed out, happened in a Google-sponsored Q & A with the public, not a session with reporters–made it into the papers. The New York Times (1/31/12) flagged civilian deaths as the most newsworthy aspect, headlining a report by Mark Landler “Civilian Deaths Due to Drones Are Not Many, Obama Says.” Landler writes:
Mr. Obama, in an unusually candid public discussion of the Central Intelligence Agency’s covert program, said the drone strikes had not inflicted huge civilian casualties. “We are very careful in terms of how it’s been applied,” he said. “It is important for everybody to understand that this thing is kept on a very tight leash.”
It would have been helpful for the Times to point out that there are other sources who might comment on civilian casualties from drone strikes. The Times addressed this topic last year, challenging the CIA’s absurd claims that there were no civilian deaths at all. The British Bureau of Investigative Journalism noted (8/10/11) that between 391 and almost 800 civilians have reportedly been killed since the drone program began in 2004, including 168 children.
The Times offers a curious explanation for the government’s refusal to speak openly about their program:
The CIA’s drone program, unlike the use of armed unmanned aircraft by the military in Afghanistan and previously in Iraq, is a covert program, traditionally one of the government’s most carefully-guarded secrets. But because of intense public interest–the explosions cannot be hidden entirely–American officials have been willing to discuss the program on condition of anonymity.
Granting anonymity to official sources because of “intense public interest” in a story is a little puzzling.
The Wall Street Journal also weighed in (1/31/12), pointing out that the “U.S. says roughly 60 civilians have been killed there. Pakistani officials and some human-rights group say the number of civilian dead is far higher.”
The Journal adds that some think secrecy is bad PR:
Proponents of more disclosure inside the administration and the military argue U.S. secrecy has fueled charges in Pakistan that the drone strikes frequently kill civilians. They say releasing at least some details about the operations will help deflect criticism.
Or maybe the drones do actually kill innocents, and it’s better not to acknowledge this fact.
It appears there’s a word missing from that WSJ quote, just before “details”.
“Disingenuous”, maybe?
“The British Bureau of Investigative Journalism noted that between 391 and almost 800 civilians have reportedly been killed since the drone program began in 2004, including 168 children.”
Just to keep things in perspective, that high number is about half the total of Somalis killed during the Black Hawk Down incident, while the low number is greater than the civilian deaths in a single bombing attack during OP Desert Storm at Amiriyah. So yeah, it would be much worse with unrestricted drone attacks.
“Careful”, but ILLEGAL!
The little bit that I have read about drones doesn’t seem too promising in terms of those civilian deaths.
I read somewhere,( and I’m sorry that I can’t recall where) that drones seem to be affected by weather changes and also in several instances have seemed to decide in some independent way to take a different course than what was intended.
This doesn’t bode well for humanuity in general. I’ve also read that outside contractors are flying many of these, drones whch will present a quandry for civilian deaths. Will a corporation be sued for these deaths if contractors are flying them? Does outsourcing the job also outsource the responsibility?
I’ve also read about the many sizes which could be developed. I’m sure that the papparazzi would love the hummingfird size. I also read that some in private industry think that small drones would make excellent delivery people, such as in pizza chains. Perhaps some private corporation have visions of drones delivering the mail?
However, so many drones of various sizes would seem to further decimate the bee and bird populations, and having drones flying over civilian populations would seem to create havoc with home insurance. Then too, once one country has them, then all will want them. It is bad enough when giant satellites fall to earth, but imagine, all the many sizes of drones falling on all of our heads.
Technology can be a wonderful thing, but I do wish those in charge would also look at the unintended consequences.
Drones, like chemical and biological warfare, are diabolical and should be outlawed. Furthermore, as a nation that proclaims its Constitutional rights and obedience to the law (even at one time stating that the accused must be considered innocent until proven guilty), this taking of life without even the pretext of a trial is totally illegal and immoral! In our name and with our tax money, our leaders have created button-pushing serial killers–civilians, women, children included as victims. The shame is ours too for electing them.
Amanda philosophically you are right.But de-fanging our forward strike capabilities against our terrorist enemies may save lives of innocents …..but it will also spare the lives of the guilty.An army that strikes out and then hides among the population is to blame for the collateral deaths.We do not intend to kill anyone but our targets.I do not believe Obama has ever set out to do that.This is the nature of a guerilla war with terrorists.We must improve.But a man that shields himself with a child as he shoots from behind killing many,will not only at some point forfeit his own life,but that of the childs.We will weep for the child.He never cared about such things.OBL knew he was on every hit list.Yet he kept many woman and children about him.We did a great job to lesson collateral damage there.So that is the answer.We must get better at hitting these cowards without killing innocents.Precision arms allow for that.But it is not perfect.
LOL, michael e.
The flaw in your thinking is that one omnipotent mind will decide who are the innocent. Sadly, as the drone flies, the answer seems to be: If it looks like a human being , and acts like a human being , then it must be a terrorist!
Unfortunately, the Univerese can have a wicked sense of hunor. HEADS UP! INCOMING!
Without close scrutiny these poorly covered semi-secret drone wars can kill many innocents an either don’t report it or claim they killed only “bad guys” without proof. None of it can be a secret or we can’t trust their numbers.
Are we using them against opponents of our ocupation (they are not terrorists), or are we using them on real terrorists who have realistic plans to destroy skyscrapers in NYC? My bet is that we are using them to prop up Hamid Karzai by destroyng the folks who wish he weren’t the Afghan leader. In other words, we’re using them to support one side of a civil war. That’s wrong. The more we use them, the more we make the folks out there want to attack NYC.
That’s right, gloriana–The hated Barack Obama has taken it upon himself to not only decide that, on his order alone, you can be locked up forever, with no charges, trial , or lawyer, but he can order your assassination as well. Again, in total secret, with no explanations, and the outrageous claim that since everything is secret, you can’t go to court to stop him from killing you, or even ask the reason for it, lest you reveal Super-Secret Top Secret stuff about the “operation.” And who supports this enthusiastically? Who suddenly feels for our Socialista, evil president? The very right-wing trolls who otherwise hate the President. Not until the President actually, really violates his oath and engages in authoritarian, exrtra-judicial war-mangering, murder, and illegal attacks do the trolls lighten up and finally see the goodness of our wonderful President. It’s absolutely wrong, and clearly extra-
Constitutional, yet we hear no condemnation from Baggers or the Right (and of course, no condemnation from the President’s partisan admirers). I can’t wait to see the knee-jerk Democrats and Obamabots and the foaming-at-the-mouth Baggers and Right-wing totalitarians join hands and offer praise and hosannahs to the State when the Iran war gets going. Very revealing: the trolls and Baggers really do have no principles, just a series of endless hypocrisies and irritable mental gestures they attemt to pass off as rational, informed thought. And they are helped along every step of the way by our lazy and sycophantic press.
Since when has violating the law and talking and looking tough by violating the soverignty of other nations upheld and enforced the law? Terrorism is a criminal problem and law enforcement is the most appropriate and effective paradigm for addressing it. Massacre robots that kill large numbers of non-combatants to kill a few potential criminals is not as effective as building good will, investigating, and taking criminals into custody where they can be tried, and if the evidence is found compelling, punished. Almost all nations would enthusiastically help out on that agenda and it would strenghten and stabilize international relations rather than spreading killing, hate, and war.
Well said, tishado. Check out Glenn Greenwald’s disturbing post today: http://www.salon.com/writer/glenn_greenwald/
Tishido the dumbest thing anyone ever proposed is that terrorism is a criminal problem.
Please let me know if you’re looking for a writer for your weblog. You have some really good articles and I believe I would be a good asset. If you ever want to take some of the load off, I’d love to write some articles for your blog in exchange for a link back to mine. Please blast me an e-mail if interested. Many thanks!
Yet another uneducated see of bluegrass music. Folks there is no one particular more concerned about the state of bluegrass music than Doyle. I first began listening to Doyle in the mid 80s and the quality and artistry is still the same high quality. Drums and the electric bass have already been used in bluegrass as far again as 40 ages. Listen to some with the Osborne brothers and J.D. Crowe from back in the day. Doyle, I thank God to the music you’ve been making for almost 4 decades with Quicksilver. It has been a crucial portion of my life for 30 several years. May God bless you using the ability to ignore stupid posts.