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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: 5, Insightful) by bradley13 on Monday March 20 2017, @03:33PM (10 children)

    by bradley13 (3053) on Monday March 20 2017, @03:33PM (#481535) Homepage Journal

    It's early days yet in the Trump administration - I'm as interested as anyone in seeing what direction he will take. However, precisely because it is early days, it is too early to see any changes in policy - these may well be underway, but they will not yet have trickled down to daily operations. Indeed, the opposite may be true: commanders in the field may be making the most of their increased freedom, before the new administration can get its policies in place.

    And as former military, I can attest: if every individual drone strike is being approved by REMFs, that would be the absolute stupidest policy of them all. Imagine: you are a commander in the field, you desperately need air support. You radio in your request, and are told: "The Pentagon can let you know sometime next week, or maybe next month". That's how MacArthur ran lots of the Vietnam war, and we all know how well that turned out. I sincerely, sincerely hope that this is not how the military is currently operating...

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  • (Score: 2) by bradley13 on Monday March 20 2017, @03:36PM

    by bradley13 (3053) on Monday March 20 2017, @03:36PM (#481537) Homepage Journal

    Not MacArthur, dammit. I meant SecDef McNamara.

    --
    Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by https on Monday March 20 2017, @04:24PM (8 children)

    by https (5248) on Monday March 20 2017, @04:24PM (#481565) Journal

    In the last couple of months President Bannon has made it very clear what direction this is going. Inflame hostility against Muslims, dismantle all government programs that aid poor people (making enlisting seem a rational choice), start a war with a predominantly Muslim country by dint of a false-flag attack, send poor people off to kill the innocent. Seems the only question is what the magnitude of the false-flag attack will be.

    The only change I see from Bush is that Bush was mostly trying to make his cronies in the MIC rich while Bannon earnestly wants Muslims dead and who cares about the money.

    --
    Offended and laughing about it.
    • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 20 2017, @05:04PM (6 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 20 2017, @05:04PM (#481587)

      I mostly voted to avoid a corrupt felon and to resist a future with my grandchildren under rapefugee-induced sharia. I thought Trump wouldn't be much into drone strikes.

      It turns out he's good at that too! Sweet. He really is the best president.

      Obama may have gotten a peace prize, but he didn't deserve it. Trump doesn't deserve one either... yet. Peace will only be possible (still unlikely though) when all Muslims are dead. This is about 160 million per year for the next 8 years, or half a million each week day for the next 8 years.

      We're dealing with a mind virus that exploits western society's freedoms, ultimately killing the host. Winning won't be easy, particularly because a 5th-column of liberals likes to assist the invaders. (they think "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" but will be first getting stoned, tossed off buildings, beheaded, crucified, and burned -- LGBT and women don't fare so well under sharia) We're probably doomed, but we must try.

      • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Zz9zZ on Monday March 20 2017, @05:37PM (2 children)

        by Zz9zZ (1348) on Monday March 20 2017, @05:37PM (#481618)

        It is sad, you don't even realize Islam isn't the real problem. That religion is being used as a distraction, an easy target for people to hate. The "mind virus" isn't Islam, it is the collective fascist policies being pushed by corporate interests. Advocating genocide? Do you ever stop and think about what you are saying?

        --
        ~Tilting at windmills~
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 20 2017, @07:05PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 20 2017, @07:05PM (#481685)

          We're human. Genocide is in our past and in our future. We wouldn't be human without genocide. Genocide features in ancient history, and we can reasonably assume it to be part of pre-history. Genocide doesn't even need religion; Rwanda and Cambodia have shown that in the not-to-distant past. Genocide is especially normal with Islam; it is called for in the Koran.

          So it's going to happen. The only question: do we want to be the winners or the losers?

          There is something to be said for a preemptive strike. Why let the enemy get their forces in place?

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 20 2017, @09:17PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 20 2017, @09:17PM (#481777)

          It's not genocide in the sense as people would make normal use of that word, as Islam is not a genetic production. Islam is a socio-political system that has cultivated a horrific culture that not only is terrible to live within (not the USA's business) but also literally seeks to wage war against the world until they take over (definitely the USA's business).

          A culture that cuts out little girls' clitorises and perpetuates the anal rape of little boys is repugnant. There are definitely inferior cultures, and those which are demonstrably inferior and warlike need to be wiped out just as all the rest have been throughout human history.

      • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Monday March 20 2017, @05:45PM

        by bob_super (1357) on Monday March 20 2017, @05:45PM (#481625)

        You lost me.
        Are you still on the need to sterilize blacks and idiots, or did you switch to the Irish invading with their Catholicism?
        I don't think you'd still be on those evil Jews drinking blood, so I must have drifted off while you were complaining about the Latinos crossing the border and/or having too many babies.
        Or was it your recollection of the WWII Japs needing to be rounded up? I kinda gave up on existential-threat-of-the-day after them Ruskies decided not to nuke my favorite Indian reservation...

        21st century, really...

      • (Score: 3, Insightful) by driven on Monday March 20 2017, @06:54PM (1 child)

        by driven (6295) on Monday March 20 2017, @06:54PM (#481676)

        Are you sure that painting all Muslims with the same brush isn't the mind virus? Give that some solid thought.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 20 2017, @09:20PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 20 2017, @09:20PM (#481781)

          Pretty sure. The problem with Islam is not the people, but its fundamental "perfect" written documents (Quran, Hadith, Sura) which are the source of the vile evil found in Islam, the culture it breeds, and the vile actions encouraged by the words which some Muslims are motivated by.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 20 2017, @05:34PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 20 2017, @05:34PM (#481612)

      those programs don't aid the poor. they are political tools to further enslave people and to garner votes by catering to people's ignorance. Furthermore a high percentage of what the feral government does it out of scope and should be eliminated. People are so brainwashed they think that things have do be done at the federal level or poor people will suffer. bullshit! if you aren't involved sufficiently to have influence at the county/city level what makes you think the feral gov gives a rat's ass about you or your needs/opinions? mindless slaves begging for bigger, more authoritarian government.