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Common Dreams reports:
The U.S. government's so-called "pinpoint"(NYT paywall) drone strikes in Pakistan and Yemen are, in fact, leaving wide perimeters of death, as people on the Kill List are targeted--and even reported dead--again and again, according to a report published Monday by the UK-based charity Reprieve.
While drone attacks and their victims are kept secret by the U.S. military and government, Reprieve compiled public information available, most of it from media reports and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, to determine who actually died when the U.S. went after individuals in Yemen and Pakistan between November 2002 and November 2014.
The study examines the cases of 41 people included on a Kill List--a classified U.S. assassination program personally approved by President Obama with no judicial or public oversight. According to the report's findings, up to 1,147 unnamed people were killed in pursuit of these 41 known individuals.
Furthermore, each of these 41 men was reported killed multiple times.
"This raises a stark question," states the study. "With each failed attempt to assassinate a man on the Kill List, who filled the body bag in his place?
(Score: 1) by lizardloop on Thursday November 27 2014, @01:28PM
What bothers me is there is no accountability. At no point do we ever hear "This guy screwed up, got a bunch of civilians killed and so we are going to court martial him and put him in jail". All we get is "meh, sucks to be brown and live in a rural community".
You'll notice these drone strikes never occur in cities. Even though there are probably plenty of terrorists in cities. My theory (and it is just a theory) is that the people doing the bombing know most people will not care when some brown people in a dirt hut get hit by a missile. It's a situation far removed from their own urban or sub urban lives so they can't empathise.
But show a few pictures of a bombed out apartment block and suddenly everyone gets bent out of shape (see recent Israel/Palestine conflict). Seeing a wall missing, blood everywhere and a kitchen that looks scarily just like their own in ruins makes it feel a bit more "real".