Re: US military policy and war mongering in the previous administration.
In the latest step toward rolling back Obama-era rules for targeted killings, President Donald Trump will no longer require U.S. intelligence officials to publicly disclose the numbers of people killed in drone strikes and other attacks on terrorist targets outside of war zones.
Trump ended the reporting requirement by signing an executive order Wednesday. The move had been expected since the administration last year failed to release an annual accounting of civilian and enemy casualties required under an order signed in 2016 by then-President Barack Obama.
The order signed by Trump revokes a specific requirement that the administration release an unclassified summary of "the number of strikes undertaken by the United States Government against terrorist targets outside areas of active hostilities, as well as assessments of combatant and non combatant deaths resulting from those strikes, among other information."
President Obama dramatically expanded the use of targeted strikes with drones against al Qaeda and later ISIS targets. He also sought to put in place a set of rules designed to promote accountability and encourage policy-makers to minimize civilian casualties. Critics said those rules placed unwarranted constraints on counter terrorism operatives.
Among the rules was a requirement that there be a "near certainty" of no civilian casualties before the CIA launched a strike. That rule did not apply in war zones, where the standard is less strict. It’s unclear whether that rule remains in place.
I wish the writer was better at using indirect pronouns, but my point is really about the fact that the number of civilian and military deaths don't have to be publicly reported. Yes, I know. It was Obama's idea to report drone strike casualties in the first place because he was criticized for using drones. But, last I heard, the US is planning to leave most of the "war zones" soon (aka Syria). So, outside of war zones means everywhere else, and by the CIA at that.
Secondly, if there were no more drone strikes, there wouldn't be any need to report them anyway. Therefore, we know that they are expected to be happening if they're not ongoing now. It'll be easy to say that there were no civilian casualties and that "many" enemies were killed. Um, I don't see this as somehow unusual US policy at all. It's back to the same old strategy, not something new and improved.
Anyway, ask me if I think it's important to report civilian casualties. My main reason would be that it makes people responsible, for their guilt or their indifference. That's another subject, though.
Posted: Sat Mar 02, 2019 12:57 pm
