Kahar Zalmay: I submit that the difference between a predator Taliban and a Predator drone is that the latter does not intentionally target innocent people, but terrorists who kidnap children and strap them into suicide vests do purposefully target unarmed civilians.
Drones
A target drone is an unmanned, remote controlled aerial vehicle. In their simplest form, target drones often resemble radio controlled model aircraft. More modern drones may use countermeasures, radar, and similar systems to mimic real aircraft. The Obama administration has been criticized for its use of drones in Pakistan, Afghanistan and regions in the Middle East.
Behind Pakistan’s Iron Curtain
Melissa Roddy: Clinging to the simplistic Vietnam era mind-set, where ere goes the U.S. military, misery follows — anti-drone activists fail to comprehend the ground reality of their impassioned “Troops Out — Stop the Drones” mission.
Obama’s New Restricted War on Terror Unlikely to Last
Ivan Eland: Even if drone strikes are eventually transferred from the CIA to the Pentagon, it may be important only in the minds of Washington’s politicians and bureaucrats, rather than effecting the implied improvement in transparency.
No 9/11, No Need for Drones
Berry Craig: Count me among supporters of drones or any other weapon authorized by any president that kills the enemy without endangering the lives and limbs of our fighting service men and women.
Tide Turning Against Counterterrorism Secrecy
Tom Hayden: Obama’s speech at the National Defense University on counterterrorism revealed a commander-in-chief increasingly worried about political criticism of his Guantanamo detentions, his penchant for secrecy and his drone warfare policies.
Medea Benjamin Calls President to Account
Benjamin called on the President to use his power as Commander-In-Chief to close Guantanamo prison, release the 86 Guantanamo prisoners who have been cleared for release, and stop the killer drone program
American Killer Drones: Hitmen for Hire
JP Sotille: Everyone is a potential target in the War on Terror’s lingering “With Us or Against Us” protection racket, and drones are the crooked-nosed enforcers that kill without remorse, without hesitation and without accountability.
Boston Marathon, This Thing Called Terrorism, and the United States
William Blum: What is it that makes young men, reasonably well educated, in good health and nice looking, with long lives ahead of them, use powerful explosives to murder complete strangers because of political beliefs? I’m speaking about American military personnel of course, on the ground, in the air, or directing drones from an office in Nevada.
Drone Fallout: Decoding the Arrest of General Musharraf
JP Sotille: By shooting of his big mouth, the retired general collaterally damaged the tumultuous pact between his former colleagues in both Islamabad and Washington. In fact, he blew another hole in the crumbling wall of obfuscation around Washington’s kill list.
California Democratic Party Disses Fracking, Still Loves Money
Wendy Block: It’s heartbreakingly clear that the Democrats won’t act courageously. But a number of non-partisan outside groups will. The MOVI coalition and Common Cause are sponsoring Prop C on the Los Angeles ballot next month, to let voters tell electeds to fight Citizens United. They need you.
The Growing Divide Between Elites and Average People
Wendy McElroy: There has been a creeping difference in the attitudes of many politicians and the politically connected. In grabbing for power, they are often almost casually blatant, as though their authority is so secure that there is no longer a need to sugarcoat their motives.
Killing Civilians Without Due Process
Tom Hall: It is not the drones actively killing civilians in Yemen and Pakistan that threaten us, but rather the drones lounging in front of TVs on the homefront as our rights and freedoms slip further away.
King: I Have a Dream. Obama: I Have a Drone.
Norman Solomon: After his Inaugural speech in January 2009, Obama has pursued policies that epitomize King’s grim warning in 1967: “When scientific power outruns moral power, we end up with guided missiles and misguided men.”
