It feels like we hear this story all too often. A US drone strike in Yemen hit a convoy of cars that were part of a wedding party, killing at least ten and up to seventeen innocent people. Local authorities said the intended target was al-Qaeda operatives. The number of drone strikes in Pakistan and Yemen has increased since Obama took office, and although the President has earned praise from many people on their effectiveness in eliminating terrorist threats, these strikes are a mark on his legacy and should be on the conscience of all Americans. They’re tantamount to sham trials and executions.
When an operation is run in this level of secrecy, we lose the notion of accountability. Who’s to blame when an aerial attack goes wrong and innocent civilians on the way to a wedding are killed? In most branches of the US military, attacks on civilians are investigated and there’s (usually) a clear determination as to who’s responsible. They can be investigated, disciplined if necessary and action can be taken to rectify the process. In the ambiguous and hazy environment of drone attacks, however, we don’t have the ability to hold those responsible for mistakes accountable, which makes the future efficacy of these operations extremely discouraging.
The argument that these strikes are effective in combatting terrorism doesn’t hold sway when you consider the lives of those living under them - it’s a truly frightening existence. To a Yemeni (or a Pakistani), a drone strike is a random killing from the sky. They see no troops on the ground, who have faces and are humans just like them. Their entire notion of the US military is one of indiscriminate and omnipotent firepower, one that frequently cuts down civilians as well as combatants. And these combatants are benefitting from our drone strikes. Every mistake the US military makes that ends up killing civilians can be used as a recruiting tool for al-Qaeda. There is little evidence to show that the fear of a drone strike is dissuading many combatants from continuing the fight.
It’s up to the US people to hold their government accountable for events like this, and the operations that led to it. If more people understood the consequences of these attacks, the support for them would decline. The American people never voted for this shadow war. They have no one to hold accountable for the mistakes made in it. And they shouldn’t stand by and let it continue.
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