One in Three Killed By Drones In Pakistan Is A Civilian
A new report from the New America Foundation states that one of every three people killed in the U.S.'s not-so-secret drone war in Pakistan is a civilian. The report also discloses that none of the strikes in 2009 targeted Bin Laden, and that they have had little impact on the Taliban's ability to plan operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan. To the contrary, the drone strikes serve as a powerful recruiting tool for the Taliban and al Qaeda.
According to New America Foundation's Peter Bergen and Kathren Tiedemann (emphasis mine):
Our study shows that the 114 reported drone strikes in northwest Pakistan from 2004 to the present have killed between 830 and 1,210 individuals, of whom around 550 to 850 were described as militants in reliable press accounts, about two-thirds of the total on average. Thus, the true civilian fatality rate since 2004 according to our analysis is approximately 32 percent.
The authors note that the rapidly escalating use of drones by the Obama Administration far exceeds the rate of use by the Bush Administration, with 2009's 51 strikes exceeding the total number of strikes under the entire Bush Administration.
Forget "is our children learning?", the only thing that's clear to me is that our government is NOT learning. We are creating yet another front of radicalized people who hate us and who have nothing left to lose to fight us.
I've joined the Rethink Afghanistan Facebook group, and subscribe to Robert Greenwald's Rethink Afghanistan organization as well. It's time we start being smarter about how we fight terror and put an end to these drone strikes.
It is my understanding that the success rate of drone attacks on "bad Guys" has gone way up in the last year. I believe there has been substantial improvement in targeting the right people.
Yeah, sure, ok, whatever you say.
32 percent is a war crime.
Barack Obama: Change we can only imagine
This isn't the first time that the BS about "surgical strikes" turned out to be a load of crap. Only it wasn't that the missiles were inaccurate; rather, the missiles are doing exactly as they are being programmed to do, target civilians.
Look up what happened in Lebanon, in 2006. Hezbollah's katushya rockets did less harm to Israeli civilians on both a numerical and percentage basis than Israel's US-supplied "smart missiles" did, yet katushyas have no guidance systems whatsoever.
http://www.antiwar.com/cook/?articleid=11459
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/6981557.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/06...
According to Human Rights Watch, 75% of 159 Israelis killed were civilians, while over 90% of the 550 Lebanese killed by Israel (and investigated by HRW) were civilians. Another 600 Lebanese had not been accounted for as civilians or combatants. The report also shows Israel knowingly fired on civilian areas regularly despite most attacks by Hezbollah coming from locations far from civilian areas.
Numbers like that are not accidents, whether in Lebanon or Pakistan. They're deliberate.
...Kucinich has come out in favor of winding down the war in Afghanistan.
And, 1audiofile? Does that make it acceptable to you, that not quite as many civilians (read women and children under 13, as boys over that age and all men are probably enemy combatants) are being killed?
"Courtesy is owed. Respect is earned. Love is given." --Unknown author, found in Guide to Texas Etiquette by Kinky Friedman
I want out now. Call it precipitous withdrawal if you want but the fact is that the lives of the Afghans has gone right back to where it was before we got there, except for a few blocks of downtown Kabhul. It's time to take a lesson from the Soviet Union and bail while we still can. Remember the Soviet Union? That was the OTHER world superpower. You know, the one that isn't around anymore, partly because they couldn't get out of Afghanistan. Bring our people home. We can help Afghans in ways that don't involve killing one civilian out of every three. Use the money to do some GOOD in the world. Hey, what about single payer health care right here?
Barack Obama: Change we can only imagine
who are the terrorists, again?
the conquering hordes occupying two countries that never attacked us, they are the bad guys?
America is a wasteland.
I hope this idea of killing innocent people with small planes doesn't catch on.
the rich and their private armies(read Xe) vs. the internal american resistance.
Some stuff you can't make up!
They hate us because we're bombing the shit out of their families. Duh...
Barack Obama: Change we can only imagine
The same one?
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Means we only lost hundreds instead of thousands. Thanks so little for this "improvemment." I'm sure the civilian population of Afghanistan will be very grateful.
"We will find fulfillment not in the goods that we have, but in the good we can do for each other."
Robert F. Kennedy
i'd be interested in hearing how they discerned the difference between civilians and collaborators.
Sounds like a war of terrorism as opposed to a war on terrorism. You make that call.
"Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people." ~ Eleanor Roosevelt
hat's what it's been from the very begining, awar of terrorism.
Remember "Shock and Awe"? What is "shock and awe" if not the definition of the purpose of terrorism?
It is like the situation of the Vietnamese villages. You have to destroy the village in order to save it. There will be a lot of collateral damage (civilians) but in the end they will love us and understand (especially the dead).
perpetual war.
Some stuff you can't make up!
To put it mildly I am not fond of my country anymore and for more reasons than one . There was a time when all things considered one could be proud of or at least feel positive about the US , that period in US history is long gone , man , have we gone to shit .
Now, what can be done about it, if anything?
are killing so-called terrorists. Without any evidence, just my gut, I believe that way more than 1/3 of those killed in drone attacks are civilians. It's much more likely that 1/3 of those killed in drone attacks are "terrorists." In fact, the number of so-called terrorists killed in drone attacks is probably less than 10%. Go ahead and flame me, but I refuse to believe the military.
A big part of the problem with knocking off civilians is that it makes a great recruitment tool for the Taliban. They show up when the fires are still burning and the body parts are still lying around. They say to the grieving family members, "See! This is how the Americans fight. They are cowards. Join us." And it works for them. Face to face battle is a big deal for folks in that part of the world and they consider using an airplane that you can't see or hear to send a missile up your ass as worse than cowardly. It may be militarily effective but from a psychological standpoint it is probably a failure. We are not going to be able to kill our way out of this one.
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