PKSOI/GLOBAL TRENDS CASE STUDIES A Drone's Strike Away | Page 9

Case Study #1118-08
PKSOI TRENDS GLOBAL CASE STUDY SERIES
In 2016 alone, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (BIJ) reports, US military forces conducted 1071 drone and
other air strikes in Afghanistan that killed between 1400-1600 people, up to 105 of them civilians. 60 In eight years in
office, drone usage increased tenfold during the Obama Administration. Overall, President Obama ordered a total of
563 strikes, largely by drones, compared to only 57 strikes during the Bush Administration. Justifying increasing drone
strikes, President Obama explained:
What I think is absolutely true is it’s not sufficient for citizens to just take my word for it that we’re doing the
right thing. … We respect and have a whole bunch of safeguards in terms of how we conduct counterterrorism
operations outside of the United States. The rules outside of the United States are going to be different than the
rules inside the United States. 61
But US drone strikes not only increased in number, they also changed in their strategic intent – from targeting suspect-
ed terrorists to ground troop support. Jack Serle of the BIJ knows: “More than 200 strikes, the majority by drones, have
been conducted to defend ground forces battling a rising insurgency, despite the fact that combat missions came to an
end in 2014. These strikes represent more than 60% of all US airstrikes in the country.” 62 The target also changed, as the
BIJ investigation revealed: “President Barack Obama brought in new rules on June 10 [2016] giving his troops greater
freedom to target the Taliban with air strikes and to accompany Afghan troops in the field. Until then, the US military
in Afghanistan was only allowed to go on the offensive against al Qaeda and the Afghan offshoot of Islamic State. They
could strike the Taliban solely for self-defence purposes or if failing to do so would result in a serious setback for the
Afghan military.” 63
Apart from Afghanistan, the BIJ reports in September 2016 that there had been between 136-156 confirmed US drone
strikes in Yemen since 2002, 64 424 in Pakistan since 2004 and between 32-36 in Somalia since 2007. 65 In Pakistan,
drone strikes are aimed at Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups that continue to attack US and NATO targets inside
Afghanistan. 66 In Somalia, drone strikes exclusively target al-Shabaab, 67 a terrorist group set on turning Somalia into
a fundamentalist Islamic state with a history of attacks on international aid workers, peacekeepers from the African
Union, journalists and civilian leaders. 68
Drone supporters herald the expansion of targeted strikes as the key reason for the successful assassination of high value
targets such as Said Ali al-Shihri, deputy Al-Qaeda leader in the Arabian Peninsula and Anwar al-Awlaki, the aforemen-
tioned Yemeni imam and its lead recruiter. 69 Despite these successes, critics of this broadened use of power note the
increasing number of civilians, especially children, who are killed in the process as collateral damage. In August 2012,
a volley of remotely operated American missiles shot and killed three Al Qaeda members along with a respected cleric
who had publicly denounced the terror organization just a few days earlier in far eastern Yemen. “The killing of Mr.
Jaber, just the kind of leader most crucial to American efforts to eradicate Al Qaeda,” the New York Times explained,
“was a reminder of the inherent hazards of the quasi-secret campaign of targeted killings that the United States is waging
against suspected militants.” 70
Although the Department of Defense claims that American drone strikes are extremely accurate and that the vast ma-
jority of people killed in such strikes are members of armed groups such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda, critics “claim that
drone strikes are much less discriminating, have resulted in hundreds of civilian deaths … and foster animosity that in-
creases recruitment into the very groups the USA seeks to eliminate.” 71 Amnesty International reported that, according
to NGO and Pakistan government sources, the US launched more than 330 drone strikes in Pakistan between 2004 and
2013, killing between 400 and 900 civilians and seriously injuring at least another 600. 72 Although firm conclusions are
difficult to reach, “because the US government refuses to provide even basic information on particular strikes, including
the reasons for carrying them out,” Amnesty International expressed serious concern “that these and other strikes have
resulted in unlawful killings that may constitute extrajudicial executions or war crimes.” 73
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