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| What Drone-Strike Data from Yemen and Pakistan Says about the ISIS Fight |
| 2015-09-16 |
| The author specializes in "Conflict resolution" studies. 'Nuff said... [DefenseOne] This week, the Washington Post published a story about a new U.S. plan to use lethal drone strikes in Syria to destroy ISIL capabilities on the ground. Shhh. The story is about a secret program. Mum's the word. The desire to do something—anything—to destroy the capabilities of a group so luridly destructive is understandable, but our haste to show results will likely result in a hollow victory at best. I seriously doubt this commander in chief gets the idea of "victory" Proponents of lethal drone strikes argue they are an effective way of reducing operational capabilities and that they make Americans safer. Good sales pitch, and for the first part they are prolly correct. As Joe Stalin once said, "when a man is giving you a problem, remember: no man, no problem..." Critics of the program argue that the risk of civilian casualties is too high and constitutes a human rights violation. They add that the secondary effect of radicalizing bystanders outweighs any tactical successes. Just don't mention that the notion of radicalizing bystanders who witness death from above has been disproved over the years. I offer an additional, simpler critique, based on 14 years of experience analyzing and working with programs designed to reduce conflict, insurgency and violent extremism worldwide: there’s no evidence that drone strikes work. But you just said they reduce operational capability. On the contrary, ample evidence shows drone strikes have not made Americans safer or reduced the overall level of terrorist capability. The strikes amount to little more than a waste of life, political capital and resources. More at the link. As a personal opinion, death from above may make sense in the early going, but, this fella is right. Nothing has been stopped from the air. |
| Posted by:badanov |
| #1 OK, but how about an arclight or two? |
| Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 2015-09-16 12:08 |