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March 14, 2012
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A Moral Cost of Warfare Too High
Drones are a
poor tool to
build peace
ch eap er than d eploying soldiers,
an d a p p a re n tly has w id e sp re a d
public support — 83 percent o f
people interview ed in a February
2012 A B C N ew s/W ashington Post
p o ll said th ey a p p ro v e d o f the
by J im C ason
president's use o f drones strikes to
T he Iraq W ar w as a disaster, so kill "terrorists."
the U nited States needs a new fo r
T h e O b a m a a d m in is tr a tio n 's
eign policy. Instead o f
n e w m ilita r y s tr a te g y r e
invading foreign co u n
le a s e d e a r l i e r th is y e a r
tries w ith tens o f thou
c a l l s f o r s h r i n k i n g th e
sands o f troops and try
n u m b e r o f tro o p s a n d r e
ing to occupy and c o n
ly in g m o re o n d ro n e s a n d
trol the political process,
s m a ll-fo o tp rin t m ilita ry in
P r e s id e n t
B arack
te r v e n tio n s . F o llo w in g a
O bam a has em braced a
s e r ie s o f in te rv ie w s w ith
n ew fo re ig n m ilita ry
a d m in is tr a tio n o f f ic ia ls ,
p o lic y re ly in g on " u n m a n n e d " jo u r n a lis t D a v id R o h d e d u b b e d
d ro n e s
and
lim ite d th is th e n e w " O b a m a d o c tr in e ."
counterinsurgency forces.
B efore em bracing this new strat
T he po ster child for this new w ar egy, C ongress should co n sid er its
effort is the ongoing U.S. m ilitary consequences. O u r country doesn't
action in Pakistan. But W ashington need a new era o f secret w ars w ith
has also dram atically expanded the arm ed m ilitary drones as the leading
use o f arm ed, unm anned m ilitary edge o f covert o r sem i-covert m ili
drones in East A frica and part o f the tary cam paigns around the w orld.
A rabian Peninsula. T he C ongres Y et that's w hat w e are getting.
sional R esearch Service reports that
T he operations that have been
o u r m ilitary has m ore than 7,000 reported in the m edia include Som a
drones in its arsenal.
lia, Y em en, and o f course Libya.
T he argum ents for drones are A nd the results now include the
easy to m ake. In an era o f federal extrajudicial killings, w ithout charge
budget deficits, drone w arfare is o r trial, o f U.S. citizens.
T he e x p lan a tio n u su ally p ro
vided is that these w ere really bad
people. "I w ant to m ake sure that
people understand that drones have
not caused a huge num ber o f civ il
ian casualties," P resident O bam a
declared in January. "For the m ost
part, they have been very precise,
precision strikes against al-Q aeda
and their affiliates."
L eaving aside the fact that people
in Pakistan w ould dispute his count
o f civilian casualties, this is a slip
pery slope. W e're a nation o f law s,
not a nation o f assassins. W e have
these law s precisely because w e
don't w ant the president to becom e
ju d g e, ju ry , and executioner.
W h at's m o re , w e d o n 't e v en
k n o w the scale o f th e se k illin g s
b e c a u se th ey are a lm o st all secret.
W h en Sen. R on W y d en a sk e d fo r
d e ta ils a b o u t the le g al b a sis fo r
u sin g d ro n e s to k ill U .S. c itiz e n s
in a n o th e r c o u n try , th e Ju stic e
D e p a rtm e n t re fu s e d to p ro v id e
d e ta ils in p u b lic .
R ohde saw the im pact o f drones
firsthand during the seven m onths
he spent as a T aliban captive in the
tribal areas o f Pakistan. H e has co n
clu d ed that the Pakistani state is
f a ilin g
and
th e
O bam a
adm inistration's drone w ar is only
m aking things w orse.
"Pakistan is m ore unstable today
than it was w hen O bam a took o f
fice," he w rites in the latest issue o f
Foreign Policy. "A nd the p ercen t
age o f Pakistanis supporting the
use o f the Pakistani A rm y to fight
e x tr e m is ts
in
th e
tr ib a l
a re a s .. .dropped from 53 percent in
2009 to 37 percent today."
In Y em en, O bam a's drone strikes
have increased the ranks o f al-Q aeda
in the A rabian P eninsula from 300
fighters in 2009 to m ore than 1,000
to d ay .
W ashington now seem s intent
on exp o rtin g this sam e strategy to
E ast A frica, w here the O b am a a d
m inistration is using a com bination
o f drone strikes and m ercenary train
ers fo r E ast A frican m ilitary forces
to help stabilize Som alia.
R ather than relying on a new
type o f m ilitary force, the O bam a
adm inistration needs to invest in
m ore diplom acy, developm ent, and
international cooperation. U nlike
drones, they are proven tools for
building peace.
Jim Cason is the associate ex
ecutive secretary for campaigns at
Friends Committee on National
Legislation, a Quaker lobby in the
public interest.
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