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posted by on Monday March 20 2017, @02:00PM   Printer-friendly
from the discuss dept.

When he was in office, former President Barack Obama earned the ire of anti-war activists for his expansion of Bush's drone wars. The Nobel Peace Prize-winning head of state ordered ten times more drone strikes than the previous president, and estimates late in Obama's presidency showed 49 out of 50 victims were civilians. In 2015, it was reported that up to 90% of drone casualties were not the intended targets.

Current President Donald Trump campaigned on a less interventionist foreign policy, claiming to be opposed to nation-building and misguided invasions. But less than two months into his presidency, Trump has expanded the drone strikes that plagued Obama's "peaceful" presidency.​

"During President Obama's two terms in office, he approved 542 such targeted strikes in 2,920 days—one every 5.4 days. From his inauguration through today, President Trump had approved at least 36 drone strikes or raids in 45 days—one every 1.25 days."

That's an increase of 432 [sic] percent.

Source: http://www.ronpaullibertyreport.com/archives/us-drone-strikes-have-gone-up-432-since-trump-took-office


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 20 2017, @03:45PM (11 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 20 2017, @03:45PM (#481543)

    > Exactly. So why single out UAVs?

    What is exactly is your point?
    You seem to be implying that this increase is not worth reporting because of something that was left out of the reporting.
    So what exactly should have been reported?

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 20 2017, @04:51PM (5 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 20 2017, @04:51PM (#481579)

    And how exactly are you supposed to go after the terrorists? Massive ground campaign like was done before? Ignore them and hope they don't spread like they've shown they did? So if these drone strikes are so evil, and they get stopped, then what? Compare the unfortunate civilian deaths from drone strikes to the civilian deaths from all your alternatives and tell us what the best option is (make sure to include the horrific atrocities against civilians from doing nothing).

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 20 2017, @05:00PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 20 2017, @05:00PM (#481583)

      That's not an answer to the question.
      Feel free to try again.

    • (Score: 5, Insightful) by bob_super on Monday March 20 2017, @05:29PM (3 children)

      by bob_super (1357) on Monday March 20 2017, @05:29PM (#481609)

      Oh, that's an easy one!
      You go after terrorists by demonstrating the lack of legitimacy of the cause, and fixing the conditions that allow them to fester.
      If someone is in the "fuck this shitty life, I'd rather die gloriously" mode, blowing up their associates, a wedding, or some religiously-related asshole halfway across their country isn't about to deter them...
      "When I grow up, I want my head to land 107 yards away from the fine cloud of particles gently drifting in the wind away from where my body was" said no child raised in a non-oppressive place, ever.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 21 2017, @03:25PM (2 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 21 2017, @03:25PM (#482180)

        Oh, that's an easy one!
        You go after terrorists by [removing evil from the world].

        Interesting. What's your 'Plan B'?

        • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Tuesday March 21 2017, @04:46PM (1 child)

          by bob_super (1357) on Tuesday March 21 2017, @04:46PM (#482234)

          We found the 'murrican!
          Seriously. I tell you to stop pissing off people so much that they want to hurt you from half a world away, with only low-tech weapons and suicidal idiots, and your interpretation is that it's not possible to purge the world from "evil"?

          With that level of education and thinking, the 100-year war is gonna stop being about them damn brits losing to frogs...

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 21 2017, @06:32PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 21 2017, @06:32PM (#482300)

            "When I grow up, I want my head to land 107 yards away from the fine cloud of particles gently drifting in the wind away from where my body was" said no child raised in a non-oppressive place

            Gee, I didn't realize that 'murrica was responsible for all the oppression that produces terrorists. Mayhaps terrorists' socio-political system has something to do with it, too?

            (Tongue-in-cheek response aside, yes, the USA needs to stop its crimes of meddling with foreign countries. I've ceased supporting the US government financially, and encourage others to consider doing the same since fully 75% of its funds come straight from working-class individuals.)

  • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday March 20 2017, @05:06PM (4 children)

    I'm outright stating that it is not worth reporting specifically any more than the number of rounds fired by soldiers is worth reporting. It's irrelevant trivia. It was only reported because "drone" is a scary word.

    --
    My rights don't end where your fear begins.
    • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Monday March 20 2017, @08:56PM (1 child)

      by bob_super (1357) on Monday March 20 2017, @08:56PM (#481767)

      Well, soldiers firing their weapons in anger in a foreign country typically do it with the close collaboration of at least one of the local parties, or we have an international incident.
      For example, when Israel or Russia go around raiding their neighbors, there are formal -if useless- protests.

      US drones regularly blow up lots of people based on a US decision and execution, just because fuck-you-i-can, and we're now transitioning from "regularly" to "routinely" (aka Almost Daily).

      That's totally worth reporting, analyzing, discussing, and sincerely being worry about.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 20 2017, @11:02PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 20 2017, @11:02PM (#481835)

      > any more than the number of rounds fired by soldiers is worth reporting.

      If we quadrupled the number of rounds used that would be worth reporting because it too would indicate a significant change in conditions.