I wrote today about Obama’s denial that a “huge number of civilian casualties” are resulting from the drone war in Pakistan. There is plenty of evidence of high numbers of civilian casualties from the drone strikes, and I write about and link to much of it in the piece, but I also left something out about how the Washington tallies the dead here.
President Obama said that drones are used against “al-Qaeda operatives” engaged in “active plots against the United States.” We know from reporting by Pakistani journalists that the vast majority of suspected militants targeted are not members of al-Qaeda, nor are they involved in plots against the U.S. homeland. Many of the targets are actually anonymous, low-level militants who provide operational support to the Taliban insurgency in southern Afghanistan.
The Obama administration’s claim boils down to “if they die from our drones, they were al Qaeda.” There is no gray area, no question of whether they were insurgents, suppliers of insurgents, the son of an insurgent, at the same party as an insurgent, an actual al Qaeda operative, or an al-Qaeda sympathizer, plotting to attack the homeland, or just documenting the aftermath of drone strikes, etc. If we kill them, clearly they were bin Laden reincarnated. The catchall claim, which so far no public official has been properly scrutinized for, is analogous to Richard Nixon’s claim that “if the president does it, that means it is not illegal.”
Yeah, but there are so many claims which so far no public officials have been properly scrutinized for. The officialdom-worshipping journo-eunuchs dress them, fan them and feed them grapes.
Much like the recently pissed-upon were dead Taliban.
They must have originated from al-Qaeda Headquarters in Langley, Virginia and their field office in Tel Aviv, Israel.
Remember the teen who was murdered by US grunts in Afghanistan? What did he do to deserve such a fate? No doubt with a throw down weapon and some doctored up after mission reports you could paint him as Bin Laden Jr.!
They are nothing more than casualties of war. This administration wants to protect our freedoms, and i think they're doing a great job. You guys need to ease up.
cleaning service
No doubt with a throw down weapon and some doctored up after mission reports you could paint him as Bin Laden Jr.!
I hope some day wars will be history all over the world! :(
There always be war! Unfortunatelly man is to greedy, war for oil war for other resources. it is sad true.