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    C.T. Rex PopeBrendan O'Connor
    7/01/16 3:30pm

    Even on the higher end, drones are safer for civilians than non-drones: “Before the emergence of drones and other precise weapons, war was far more dangerous for ordinary people. In World War II, an estimated 40 to 67 percent of the dead were civilians. In Korea, the estimate was 70 percent. In Vietnam, it was about one civilian for every two enemy combatants. In the Persian Gulf War, it may have been no better. In Kosovo, it seems to have been worse. In Afghanistan, civilian deaths have been estimated at 60 to 150 percent of Taliban deaths. In Iraq, civilians account for more than 80 percent of the casualties. To be fair, these were full-blown wars. You can argue that the better alternative to drone strikes is diplomacy, not invasion. But you ought to credit drones, conversely, for providing a military alternative to all-out war.”

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      ╰(　´◔　ω　◔ `)╯< Woke and BokeC.T. Rex Pope
      7/01/16 3:33pm

      Don’t forget Russia’s “spray and pray” method of bombing in Syria.

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      Doofenschmirtz, Inc.C.T. Rex Pope
      7/01/16 3:37pm

      Any time you get the temptation to link to a Slate article when discussing warfare, you should stop what you’re doing and slap sense into yourself.

      Drone warfare is hunky dory until you realize that you wouldn’t like it if other countries acted with the same flagrant disregard for diplomacy and carelessness toward US.

      If the US can use drones, so can other nations. Let’s see how much the idiots at Slate and your neighbors love drones when a Russian or German ones come whizzing by in your neighborhood to kill people they consider terrorists.

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    Obfuscatio: philosopher at largeBrendan O'Connor
    7/01/16 3:29pm

    “... the exercise of a state’s inherent right of self-defense...”

    That term seems to get stretched all the way out to “we don’t like their politics” an awful lot.

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      caekislove-caekingitupObfuscatio: philosopher at large
      7/01/16 3:37pm

      As we saw with Brexit, too much democracy can be scary and dangerous. That’s why we need to curtail freedom so that freedom can thrive. It’s like weeding the garden! It’s also bipartisan consensus, so you “bernie bros” or whatever need to remember NINE ELEVEN because if another one happens it’s only because of freedom fetishists like you dragging their feet.

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      toothpetardcaekislove-caekingitup
      7/01/16 3:41pm

      it’s been vetted.

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    RobertMadooBrendan O'Connor
    7/01/16 3:17pm

    ...according to the Obama Administration.

    Does their methodology include the ‘anyone who is a military-aged male is not a civilian’ principle? They hardly have been defining combatants “strictly.”

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      bassguitarheroRobertMadoo
      7/01/16 3:20pm

      IIRC Israel classifies any Palestinian male over the age of 12 or 13 as a “combatant,” so that’s likely what’s going on here. I sincerely doubt drones can go around and kill 2,000+ “combatants” with only a fraction of civilian deaths.

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      MonkeyMeatRobertMadoo
      7/01/16 3:28pm

      Their methodology is bullshit.

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    EatTheCheeseNicholsonBrendan O'Connor
    7/01/16 3:26pm

    Civilian and combatant deaths in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, defined by the government as “areas of active hostilities,” were not included in the report at all.

    For fuck’s sake

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      caekislove-caekingitupEatTheCheeseNicholson
      7/01/16 3:28pm

      They only count certain extrajudicial murders and not others, you see.

      All that “due process” junk in the constitution doesn’t apply to accused terrorists or people in the vicinity of where we* think there might be accused terrorists because reasons.

      It’s all perfectly logical if you’re a foreign policy “realist”!

      *not you or me, but very smart secret people

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      toothpetardcaekislove-caekingitup
      7/01/16 3:41pm

      incremental change I can believe in!

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    yankeegeekinscBrendan O'Connor
    7/01/16 3:24pm

    You need to report on what the definition of ‘combatant’ is. Basically, from the little I understand, being a male,large enough to carry an AK and being shit-adjacent is, essentially, enough to be classed as combatant?

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      caekislove-caekingitupyankeegeekinsc
      7/01/16 3:48pm

      It’s the good old Vietnam Standard.

      We blew you up = You’re a combatant.

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      Person29caekislove-caekingitup
      7/01/16 3:59pm

      If the villagers ran, they’re obviously VC and you should kill them. If they didn’t run, then they’re better trained VC. They die either way.

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    j4x_Brendan O'Connor
    7/01/16 3:43pm

    Barack Obama’s longest lasting legacy as POTUS will be the maimed orphans\survivors of the drone strikes, their festering hatred of America and the burning desire for vengeance that will never come.

    I mean that, those kids will be grown adults living with literal scars in 40 years, when his SCOTUS nominees are retired and the ACA has been supplanted.

    Congrats Obama, you are one of the all-time national champions of bombing small brown children (*to date*).

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      Doggie56j4x_
      7/01/16 3:46pm

      Well said. I am sick of the Obama adulation making the rounds as his presidency winds down. Hillary has as good as stated that she is running for Obama’s third term. Why does he get a pass on this topic?As far as I’m concerned, he’ll go down in history as “President Drone.”

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      hntergrenj4x_
      7/01/16 3:59pm

      Counterpoint: Lol. Nah.

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    e.nonBrendan O'Connor
    7/01/16 3:32pm

    nobody believes that number. the morning scarbro crew broke out in laughter when that came across the wire.

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      Vox Populiste.non
      7/01/16 4:11pm

      Well according to the IAEA, only a handful of people died from radiation exposure at Chernobyl. I’m sure there’s no self-serving interest between their low count whatsoever.

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    KaidogBrendan O'Connor
    7/01/16 3:20pm

    Mike Flynn signed on as Trump’s national security advisor, I do believe.

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      Netflix and ShillKaidog
      7/01/16 3:38pm

      That doesn't help his credibility.

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    detchasBrendan O'Connor
    7/01/16 3:22pm

    So I guess we should send in 10000 soldiers and put the terrorists down? Doing so would kill many more civilians due to the expanded agression, kill a couple hundred of our troops and still not get us where we need to be. Wake the hell up, the world we live in will never be ideal, ISIS must be stopped Obama is doing the right thing at the right time and history will prove it so.

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      Vox Populistdetchas
      7/01/16 4:17pm

      Funny how the US must always stop these “terrorists” they helped create in the first place. You’d be hard pressed to find a veteran terrorist with a long and storied career who wasn’t at some time trained, armed or funded by the US government. Just ask the “freedom fighters of Afghanistan”.

      That provides a great justification for perpetual warfare which forever keeps the military-industrial complex well fed.

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    JackAstersonBrendan O'Connor
    7/01/16 3:39pm

    Definitely Nobel Peace Prize-winning material right here.

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      Vox PopulistJackAsterson
      7/01/16 4:12pm

      Kissinger did far worse in Southeast Asia and he’s got one, plus he’s chummy with Killary Clinton.

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