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.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 20 2017, @07:05PM
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?