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Edited by The Ambassador: 4/20/2013 12:55:50 AM
14

The U.S. Ought To Scale Down Its Drone Program

Since taking office in 2008, President Obama has increased the size and scope of America's drone program multifold, with little advantage to American national security in many cases. Besides success in Yemen and other African nations, where drones have coordinated to work hand in hand with ground forces, the U.S. drone program has begun to erode the American moral cause in our 'War on Terror'. Not only this, but Al-Qaida, the organization that our program was meant to target initially, hasn't been destroyed like many claim. Only 2% of those killed are actually A.Q. leaders, and even then, another person quickly takes their place. Moreover, while the group has been severely damaged from an organizational standpoint, it has transcended into a loose coalition of regional commands that have created a large network of allied jihadists to work with them. Since Obama has taken office, A.Q. has essentially become the Coca-Cola of the Salafi world. The Obama administration has defined success through the destruction of heavily interconnected command structure. In reality, the way America has quantified the A.Q. threat is wrong. Disorganization can prove to be a blessing for Al-Qaida commanders. Raiding a H.Q. in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, etc. is now a lot less likely to produce fruit about the operations of a group in the Pacific. The truth is that the largest blows to Al-Qaida have been operations that aim at building up, not knocking down (which is all a drone is good for). Programs that create economic prosperity, semi-reliable and transparent governments, and build security infrastructure have done the most to deter the group. This is isn't to say that the program has been entirely useless, our operations in Africa have given us a cheap and effective method to support ground forces. However, in places like Pakistan, where drones are not backed by on the ground engagement, we need to realize that our strikes end up making more enemies than they do kill. Thoughts?

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  • Edited by Hargbeast: 4/20/2013 12:56:54 AM
    I think the program is dishonorable.

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    • Nothing is wrong with the technology itself, just the way it is used. I'd argue that they have been far more effective than any ground invasion, although civilian casualties are high as usual.

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      • ...

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      • >expecting some sort of "hurr durr" thread >see thread is well thought out and objective >pleasantly surprised >agree wholeheartedly

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        • [quote]>expecting some sort of "hurr durr" thread >see thread is well thought out and objective >pleasantly surprised >agree wholeheartedly[/quote]

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        • Edited by RedBaron86: 4/20/2013 1:06:26 AM
          I think flying one in combat would be cool...not gun but pilot, im good at staying alive

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        • [quote]This is isn't to say that the program has been entirely useless, our operations in Africa have given us a cheap and effective method to support ground forces. However, in places like Pakistan, where drones are not backed by on the ground engagement, we need to realize that our strikes end up making more enemies than they do kill. [/quote] QFT

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        • I find it very odd that such precision weapons are consistently imprecise.

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          • I agree.

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          • I'm actually glad you made this. Personally I believe in the use of drones, at least to a point, but in a month, I'm going to be representing the US in a Model UN conference where I have to argue using drones in other countries (without that country's permission). It's a big deal for me because the conference is going to be full of elitists (the school is called T-Money), and it'll be a tough debate (did I mention there will be 200 people in the room I'm speaking in?). But yeah, thanks, I'll be reading through this.

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            • Edited by Postwarbean: 4/21/2013 7:43:09 PM
              Too bad that's not gonna happen. Drone programs are only gonna ramp up now after the Boston Bombings.

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            • I bet you want us to scale down our freedom program too.

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              • Edited by Lord Deucey: 4/22/2013 5:20:09 AM
                Without going into a long-winded essay, I liked it better when war was inefficient and hellacious since it made presidents, prime ministers and cabinets actually think before doing because of the consequences and fallout, as well as consider the plight of innocent bystanders. Now, thanks to drones, war is becoming no different in implementation than putting in Call of Duty and getting a kill streak. Now the bystanders are looked at as statistics exclusively instead of as people. And thanks to Al Qaeda and those boys in Boston, the MIC is now finding ways to make surveillance versions useful to the government to disperse crowds, find people trapped in collapsed buildings, track criminals and more. All in the name of preventing terrorism. Seems a bit circular to me - military drones killing innocents and terrorists ultimately radicalizing survivors to join terror groups and commit terrorist attacks thus making the drones more necessary. And don't even get me started on how our due process rights have been undermined by these things. But definitely read [url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/series/glenn-greenwald-security-liberty?INTCMP=SRCH]Glenn Greenwald in the Guardian[/url] on this topic. If people know others who talk about this very topic, post some names and/or links.

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              • Don't count on it, we're supposed to have 30,000 in our country by 2020, and there have already almost been collisions with commercial airliners. WOO! Go Amerika!

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