Remember a couple years ago, when Obama said we’d shape up his drone program and achieve “near certainty” that civilians wouldn’t be killed and signature strikes would basically end? Turns out that’s not quite true. There were some pretty huge asterisks that were attached to his proclamation.
For one, the CIA was essentially allowed to do as they please when it came to drone strikes in Pakistan. And judging by the killing of hostages Warren Weinstein and Giovanni Lo Porto, we aren’t “nearly certain” of anything. The only thing that is nearly certain is that nearly nothing has changed over the past two years. The Obama administration admitted they really don’t know who we’re killing with drones.
If it looks like a terrorist from thousands of feet above, FIRE! Last year, of 41 people targeted by drones, 1,147 were killed. A ratio like that is not going to go a long way in winning over hearts and minds. With drones on the rise, it’s time to investigate if this sort of warfare actually works or is beneficial in the long run— a decidedly difficult task with so much of the US drone program shrouded in secrecy. Enjoy your Commander-in-Drone, like, share and check out the links behind the cartoon!
Obama:
Ah, greetings, from on high.
As president and Commander-in-Drone, I am deeply saddened by the death of two humanitarian workers, tragically killed in a US drone strike.
Now these men were not goat-herders, farmers, a wedding party, or military-age males in a group of five or more.
They were Westerners like you, like me— which is why I have increased my regret from implied, to outward, public and transparent.
And even though we didn’t know exactly who we were trying to kill, signature strikes like this one prove our precise targeted killing program is working.
Now, I know what you’re saying— what about the collateral damage, the fog of war?
With Signature Strikes there is no collateral damage.
These things don’t miss. We target terroristic-looking people, then kill them.
There’s nothing collateral about that.
We are trying to kill those people . . . just sometimes they’re the wrong ones.
But we make every effort to do the correct ethical and moral thing by killing people without knowing who we’re killing.
If their signature kinda signals “terrorist,” we kill them . . .
Just like my signature kinda signaled “Nobel Peace Prize winner.”
We’ll of course review our rules on drone strikes, just like we did two years ago . . .
But for America, and the world, Signature Strikes are about Hope . . . a hope, we kill the right people.