Bernish: Ironically, this news comes on the heels of a report that — because of what amounts to sibling rivalry — around $500 million has been wasted in attempts to bring the Air Force and Army into a combined drone purchasing program of the same Predator drones whose flights are now to be increased.
The use of signature strikes poses serious legal, strategic and moral questions.
Fiore: Remember a couple years ago, when Obama said we’d shape up his drone program and achieve “near certainty” that civilians wouldn’t be killed and signature strikes would basically end? Turns out that’s not quite true. There were some pretty huge asterisks that were attached to his proclamation.
Berry The drones were not as precise as I had hoped, for they sometimes miss the designated enemy and hit an innocent bystander—the sort of operator’s error that we must classify as normal. The enemies of peace resent these errors just as much as we peace-lovers would. And so the drones have very likely made more enemies than they have killed.
Chamayou : The triggers of moral indignation are quite mysterious sometimes. While the virtual hunting of animals was almost universally condemned as scandalous, the remote-controlled hunting of human beings was at the same moment taking off without any of those same people making any objections.
From the article: The report raises numerous questions regarding the validity of U.S. official claims that strikes only target individuals who pose "a continuing and imminent threat to the American people" and who cannot be captured.
Moves like this make it obvious that governments are preparing for war with their citizens. Why else would you want to indiscriminately spray entire crowds of people with pepper spray?
From the article: As these technologies continue to gain traction, it becomes necessary to consider how they fare in terms of transparency, accountability, and their contribution to world peace.
From the article: Between 2010 and 2014, the organization’s data shows, 439 drones passed through international hands, compared with 322 in the previous five years. Israel delivered 165 units. The U.S. came in second with 132...
And as Spurlock concluded, "The government's drone program lives far too deep in the shadows. As long as the government continues its campaign of secret, unacknowledged lethal strikes across the globe, we will fight to subject this policy to the scrutiny and debate it deserves."
The Air Force is currently under orders to staff 65 of these regular “combat air patrols” around the clock as well as to support a Global Response Force on call for emergency military and humanitarian missions. For all of this, there should ideally be 1,700 trained pilots. Instead, facing an accelerating dropout rate that recently More
Kathy: I hope that someday Senator McCain will gain the insight to repent of insulting them, just as one of the witnesses that day, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, may now regret having exalted the “indispensable” U.S. nation’s right to lead in using force, having since admitted, “We have been talking about our exceptionalism during the recent eight years. Now, an average American wants to stay at home – they do not need any overseas adventures. We do not need new enemies.”
