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Under Donald Trump, drone strikes far exceed Obama’s numbers - well, well there goes that whatabout

sensible don

Governor
Supporting Member
Here we go, yet another spinmaster thread , whatabout, whatabout, whatabout !

https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/2019/5/8/18619206/under-donald-trump-drone-strikes-far-exceed-obama-s-numbers

By S. E. Cupp May 8, 2019, 2:00pm CDTShare this on Facebook (opens in new window)

In this 2013 file photo, an X47-B Navy drone grabs the wire as it lands aboard the nuclear aircraft carrier USS George H. W. Bush off the Virginia coast. | AP Photo/Steve Helber

If I gave you a pop quiz on recent current events, I bet you’d do pretty well, thanks to a 24-hour cable news cycle, late night talk shows, social media and popular culture.

You undoubtedly know that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle had their first child this week. You can likely go into some detail about the Mueller report. You probably have an opinion of Attorney General William Barr.

OPINION

But what would you say if I asked you the following multiple choice question?

When it comes to President Obama’s drone wars, President Trump has:

A. Ended them

B. Continued them

C. Escalated them

You’re forgiven for not knowing the answer. It’s C. This administration has not only surpassed the previous one’s drone strike volume overseas, it has made the drone wars even more secretive, if that’s possible.

We can cobble together some reporting on the numbers, but finding exact figures on drone strikes in the Trump administration is difficult. More on that in a minute.

According to a 2018 report in The Daily Beast, Obama launched 186 drone strikes in Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan during his first two years in office. In Trump’s first two years, he launched 238.

The Trump administration has carried out 176 strikes in Yemen in just two years, compared with 154 there during all eight years of Obama’s tenure, according to a count by The Associated Press and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism.

Experts also say drone strikes under President Trump have surged in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria.

And, as was the case during Obama’s presidency, these strikes have resulted in untold numbers of civilian casualties. According to the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, U.S. drone strikes in Afghanistan killed more than 150 civilians in the first nine months of 2018.

Amnesty International reports drones have killed at least 14 civilians in Somalia since 2017.

As of January of this year, U.S. drone strikes fighting ISIS in Iraq and Syria have killed at least 1,257 civilians, according to the Pentagon, and a monitoring group, Airwars, estimates the number to be as great as 7,500.

That you might not be aware of what should be a startling and deeply troubling escalation in unaccountable remote-control warfare by the U.S. is both by design and default.

For one, the Obama administration paved the way for popularizing and normalizing drone wars, which also included the extrajudicial killing of U.S. citizens, first by hiding it, then by begrudgingly acknowledging it, and then by pretending to meaningfully constrain it.

Obama eventually put in place arcane requirements to issue public reports on civilian death tolls (but just in certain military theaters), to limit targets to high-level militants (again, in certain battlefields), and require interagency approval (also only for certain targets).

Trump has peeled back all of those requirements because, well, he can. We now know more than we did about U.S. drone wars when Obama first took office, but less than when he left.

You can also blame cowardly, partisan politics for hearing little from lawmakers about these escalations. Republicans, of course, no longer criticize these sorts of things — even if they subscribe to Trump’s Obama-rebuking, “America First” isolationism. And Democrats who might take issue with unaccountable wars and civilian deaths know to do so they’d have to acknowledge Obama’s role in the mess, and so …Trump’s tax returns it is.

You can’t, however, blame the media for this one. Refreshingly, many mainstream outlets have been reporting on this escalation for months if not years. From Foreign Policy to The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal to Fox News, The Washington Post to CNN, the issue is getting coverage. Whether Americans care or not is another story.

De-escalating our involvement — even shadow or unmanned — in overseas conflicts was something that many Trump critics and supporters were welcoming, especially abroad. One CBC headline from 2016 read, “Drone King Barack Obama will not be missed.” Another, from The Guardian: “At least President Trump would ground the drones.”
 

Bronwyn

Unapoligetically Republican
Obama embraced the US drone programme, overseeing more strikes in his first year than Bush carried out during his entire presidency. A total of 563 strikes, largely by drones, targeted Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen during Obama’s two terms, compared to 57 strikes under Bush. Between 384 and 807 civilians were killed in those countries, according to reports logged by the Bureau.
https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2017-01-17/obamas-covert-drone-war-in-numbers-ten-times-more-strikes-than-bush

Not to mention killing a US citizen and his 16 year old son.
 

now_what

Governor
Supporting Member
Obama embraced the US drone programme, overseeing more strikes in his first year than Bush carried out during his entire presidency. A total of 563 strikes, largely by drones, targeted Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen during Obama’s two terms, compared to 57 strikes under Bush. Between 384 and 807 civilians were killed in those countries, according to reports logged by the Bureau.
https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2017-01-17/obamas-covert-drone-war-in-numbers-ten-times-more-strikes-than-bush

Not to mention killing a US citizen and his 16 year old son.
okay, now do trump.
 
Oh goody. Statistics from "Amnesty International", one of those organizations that knows what is (allegedly) wrong with everything and everybody, but has zero solutions for the problems it condemns.
True story: some years ago I made a donation to Habitat for Humanity. To my horror, I found it got me on the mailing list of every liberal whackjob organization in the country. One of them was Amnesty Internationa,l who sent me a donation request accompanied by an "urgent" request that I sign the enclosed card of "encouragement" to some unknown "political prisoner" somewhere in the world. The card said "Whoever you are, I want you to know I care." How they thought that card would reach a "political prisoner" anywhere I do not know, but I'm sure the person who created the card felt very very good about themselves.
Democrats are nothing but symbolism over substance.
 

voyager

4Q2247365
You don't hear about the droning/bombings under Trump. He told the Pentagon to not share the figures. El Presidente'= moi transparent.
 

Colorforms

Senator
Here we go, yet another spinmaster thread , whatabout, whatabout, whatabout !

https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/2019/5/8/18619206/under-donald-trump-drone-strikes-far-exceed-obama-s-numbers

By S. E. Cupp May 8, 2019, 2:00pm CDTShare this on Facebook (opens in new window)

In this 2013 file photo, an X47-B Navy drone grabs the wire as it lands aboard the nuclear aircraft carrier USS George H. W. Bush off the Virginia coast. | AP Photo/Steve Helber

If I gave you a pop quiz on recent current events, I bet you’d do pretty well, thanks to a 24-hour cable news cycle, late night talk shows, social media and popular culture.

You undoubtedly know that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle had their first child this week. You can likely go into some detail about the Mueller report. You probably have an opinion of Attorney General William Barr.

OPINION

But what would you say if I asked you the following multiple choice question?

When it comes to President Obama’s drone wars, President Trump has:

A. Ended them

B. Continued them

C. Escalated them

You’re forgiven for not knowing the answer. It’s C. This administration has not only surpassed the previous one’s drone strike volume overseas, it has made the drone wars even more secretive, if that’s possible.

We can cobble together some reporting on the numbers, but finding exact figures on drone strikes in the Trump administration is difficult. More on that in a minute.

According to a 2018 report in The Daily Beast, Obama launched 186 drone strikes in Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan during his first two years in office. In Trump’s first two years, he launched 238.

The Trump administration has carried out 176 strikes in Yemen in just two years, compared with 154 there during all eight years of Obama’s tenure, according to a count by The Associated Press and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism.

Experts also say drone strikes under President Trump have surged in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria.

And, as was the case during Obama’s presidency, these strikes have resulted in untold numbers of civilian casualties. According to the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, U.S. drone strikes in Afghanistan killed more than 150 civilians in the first nine months of 2018.

Amnesty International reports drones have killed at least 14 civilians in Somalia since 2017.

As of January of this year, U.S. drone strikes fighting ISIS in Iraq and Syria have killed at least 1,257 civilians, according to the Pentagon, and a monitoring group, Airwars, estimates the number to be as great as 7,500.

That you might not be aware of what should be a startling and deeply troubling escalation in unaccountable remote-control warfare by the U.S. is both by design and default.

For one, the Obama administration paved the way for popularizing and normalizing drone wars, which also included the extrajudicial killing of U.S. citizens, first by hiding it, then by begrudgingly acknowledging it, and then by pretending to meaningfully constrain it.

Obama eventually put in place arcane requirements to issue public reports on civilian death tolls (but just in certain military theaters), to limit targets to high-level militants (again, in certain battlefields), and require interagency approval (also only for certain targets).

Trump has peeled back all of those requirements because, well, he can. We now know more than we did about U.S. drone wars when Obama first took office, but less than when he left.

You can also blame cowardly, partisan politics for hearing little from lawmakers about these escalations. Republicans, of course, no longer criticize these sorts of things — even if they subscribe to Trump’s Obama-rebuking, “America First” isolationism. And Democrats who might take issue with unaccountable wars and civilian deaths know to do so they’d have to acknowledge Obama’s role in the mess, and so …Trump’s tax returns it is.

You can’t, however, blame the media for this one. Refreshingly, many mainstream outlets have been reporting on this escalation for months if not years. From Foreign Policy to The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal to Fox News, The Washington Post to CNN, the issue is getting coverage. Whether Americans care or not is another story.

De-escalating our involvement — even shadow or unmanned — in overseas conflicts was something that many Trump critics and supporters were welcoming, especially abroad. One CBC headline from 2016 read, “Drone King Barack Obama will not be missed.” Another, from The Guardian: “At least President Trump would ground the drones.”
Let me know when he starts executing American citizens without due process. Then I'll have an issue. :)
 

middleview

President
Supporting Member
Obama embraced the US drone programme, overseeing more strikes in his first year than Bush carried out during his entire presidency. A total of 563 strikes, largely by drones, targeted Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen during Obama’s two terms, compared to 57 strikes under Bush. Between 384 and 807 civilians were killed in those countries, according to reports logged by the Bureau.
https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2017-01-17/obamas-covert-drone-war-in-numbers-ten-times-more-strikes-than-bush

Not to mention killing a US citizen and his 16 year old son.
since we didn't have armed drones for most of Bush's administration, it makes sense it wasn't used as often.

That US citizen (Awlaki) was also the head of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and had helped plot the destruction of two airliners headed for the US. Both of his bombers were captured and gave evidence of his complicity.

His son was killed because he was in an SUV with Al Qaeda fighters who were legitimate targets. He should have picked his friends better.
 

middleview

President
Supporting Member
Let me know when he starts executing American citizens without due process. Then I'll have an issue. :)
It figures you'd want to protect terrorists....Awlaki tried to blow up two airliners. Looks like you'd have let him try a couple more times.
 

middleview

President
Supporting Member
Not big on civil rights, I see. Typical fascist lefty :)
You think due process is owed to someone at war with the US? Actually you lose your citizenship if you join the military of a power engaged in hostilities against the US.
If it were possible to take Awlaki into custody that would make a difference. He'd been found guilty in absentia by courts in Yemen and condemned to death. They couldn't apprehend him either.
 

Colorforms

Senator
You think due process is owed to someone at war with the US? Actually you lose your citizenship if you join the military of a power engaged in hostilities against the US.
If it were possible to take Awlaki into custody that would make a difference. He'd been found guilty in absentia by courts in Yemen and condemned to death. They couldn't apprehend him either.
It also makes a difference if you're in the process of committing a crime. Works the same way here with violent crime. :)

Simply bombing an American is tricky business. Something the left doesn't seem to care much about. I'm sure we would be hearing screaming from the rooftops from the fascist left if Trump ever tried that. :)
 

middleview

President
Supporting Member
It also makes a difference if you're in the process of committing a crime. Works the same way here with violent crime. :)

Simply bombing an American is tricky business. Something the left doesn't seem to care much about. I'm sure we would be hearing screaming from the rooftops from the fascist left if Trump ever tried that. :)
It makes no difference if you are a member of a hostile military force engaged in fighting against the USA. Awlaki was. Over 200 Americans joined to fight with ISIS. If Trump ordered air strikes that killed any of them would you care? I would not.
 

Dawg

President
Supporting Member
since we didn't have armed drones for most of Bush's administration, it makes sense it wasn't used as often.

That US citizen (Awlaki) was also the head of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and had helped plot the destruction of two airliners headed for the US. Both of his bombers were captured and gave evidence of his complicity.

His son was killed because he was in an SUV with Al Qaeda fighters who were legitimate targets. He should have picked his friends better.
Wait, you've posted several times "capture & trial" except now...……..why not with Barry O doing the same?
 

Dawg

President
Supporting Member
You think due process is owed to someone at war with the US? Actually you lose your citizenship if you join the military of a power engaged in hostilities against the US.
If it were possible to take Awlaki into custody that would make a difference. He'd been found guilty in absentia by courts in Yemen and condemned to death. They couldn't apprehend him either.
You think Soleimani wasn't engaged in hostilities against the US after having over a 1000 of our troops killed in Iraq?

Yet, you post Soleimani should have been Captured and brought to Trial...…..hypocrisy at it's finest.
 
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