Drone Strikes

Are they morally correct?

Drone: an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)
Drone Strike: when a missile is fired from a drone to
execute a targeted killing
Definitions
History
first known targeted drone killing by
US was in Yemen (Nov 3, 2002)
Since then the US has been using
drone strikes to target militant groups
primarily in Pakistan, Yemen, and other
countries
For Strikes
Kills militants without endangering
American lives
less expensive than sending troops
more precisely decimates terrorist
networks
Against Strikes
Too many
casualties
fuels anti US
sentiment
removes
accountability.
out of sight, out
of mind

Protests in Pakistan
Increase in
Essentially what the U.S. is doing is bombing suspected AQAP targets
in Yemen in the hopes that AQAP doesnt bomb the U.S.. In my view,
this is neither sustainable nor wise. We have seen AQAP grow
incredibly fast in a remarkably short amount of time, expanding from
200-300 fighters in 2009, when the U.S. bombing campaign began, to
more than 1,000 fighters today. That is more exacerbating and
expanding the threat than it is disrupting, dismantling and defeating it.

Gregory Johnson, author of The Last Refuge and expert on Yemeni affairs
Drone strikes have proven to be largely ineffective at deflecting militant behavior, but instead, have sparked an anti -U.S. sentiment among Yemenis who
have been wrongfully targeted by drone strikes (as stated here, here and here).
http://www.thenation.com/article/166265/washingtons-war-yemen-backfires


Complications
The US government lacks
transparency in its use of drones

http://drones.pitchinteractive.com/

all males over the age of 15 classified
as militants
An American Issue?
Those who argue [drone strikes] are literally
incapable even of conceiving of an alternative in
which the US stops killing anyone and everyone it
wants in the world. They operate on the assumption
that US violence is and should be inevitable, ..
Even though they have no idea who the US
government is killing, they assume, with literally no
evidence or basis, that those being killed are
terrorists who want to attack the US and that
therefore they - and anyone close to them - must be
killed first.
- Glenn Greenwald (American Journalist)