2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forum‘The Drone Papers’ Offer Even More Reasons to End Remote-Controlled Wars
The Drone Papers Offer Even More Reasons to End Remote-Controlled WarsSonali Kolhatkar
Truth dig
Sadly, the only action likely to result from the U.S. government in response to The Drone Papers is to attempt to determine the identity of The Intercepts anonymous source and to strengthen its security clearance procedures. According to Scahill, The Intercept granted the sources request for anonymity because the materials are classified and because the U.S. government has engaged in aggressive prosecution of whistleblowers. NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, who faces such prosecution, hailed his counterparts courage, saying on Twitter, In an astonishing act of civil courage, one American just shattered an unspeakable lie. He also called the revelations in The Drone Papers the most important national security story of the year.
Even though The Drone Papers were released a few days after the first Democratic presidential debate, the controversial program should have been an issue raised by moderator Anderson Cooper. Candidates vying for the post of commander in chief ought to be confronted with the question of whether they would take over Obamas personal role in singling out assassination targets when they occupy the White House. Regrettably, neither Bernie Sanders, who proudly declared that he supports the war in Afghanistan, nor Hillary Clinton, who has been hawkish on most of Obamas wars, had to publicly declare their positions. Again, the drone program remains an open secret that everyone knows about but no one acknowledges during political discourse.
For me, the most telling revelation of the Drone Papers is that 9 out of 10 drone strikes don't hit the intended target. Even if you sidestep ethics, It's hard to imagine a program with a 90% failure rate that would be allowed to continue.
sufrommich
(22,871 posts)portlander23
(2,078 posts)As far as I know anyway.
JayhawkSD
(3,163 posts)I am not part of the disinterested public; I have been aware of and appalled by the futility of the drone program almost from its inception. I have been aware that it creates many more terrorists than it kills, is detrimental to the safety of the people of this nation, and that it should be halted in its entirety forthwith.
That being said, I am one of very few that thinks in this manner. The vast majority have bought in to government propaganda that it is "reducing the terrorist threat" by killing the smart terrorists and leaving alive the dumb terrorists, with the ultimate goal of a Muslim population that hates us but is too stupid to do anything about it.
They have heard the claims of victories and have become bored by them, and so they simply tune out when the hear the word "drone" now, reacting in a "Ho hum, been there, done that" manner.