“U.S. Drones Kill 28 ‘Unknowns’ for Every Intended Target”

Via the British
group Reprieve
comes a report asserting that U.S. drones in Yemen and Pakistan
kill 28 “unknowns” for every intended target. What’s more,
“41 names of men who seemed to have achieved the impossible:
tohave ‘died,’ in public reporting, not just once, not just twice,
but again and again. Reports indicate that each assassination
target ‘died’ on average more than three times beforetheir actual
death.”

So much for the precision of drone strikes, which promise
a future of war in which civilians and other forms of collateral
damage are spared ruin and destruction. As President Obama said in
2013, by “narrowly targeting our action against those
who want to kill us, and not the people they hide among, we are
choosing the course of action least likely to result in the loss of
innocent life.”

Well, sort of. From the Reprieve report:

As many as 1,147 people may have been killed during
attempts to kill 41 men, accounting for a quarter of all possible
drone strike casualties in Pakistan andYemen. In Yemen, strikes
against just 17 targets accounted for almost half of all
confirmedcivilian casualties. Yet evidence suggests that at least
four of these 17 men are still alive. Similarly, in Pakistan, 221
people, including 103 children, have been killed in attemptsto kill
four men, three of whom are still alive and a fourth of whom died
from naturalcauses. One individual, Fahd al Quso, was reported
killed in both Yemen and Pakistan. In four attempts to kill al
Quso, 48 people potentially lost their lives.

Whole report, including interesting explanation of methodology in
compiling list, here.

Hat tip:
The Liberty Crier and Break the Matrix‘s Twitter
feed.

Earlier this year, Newsweek reported
that “Obama’s drone war shows no signs of ending.”
A snippet:

Despite some spectacular drone hits that took out militant
leaders in places such as Yemen and Pakistan, there are growing
concerns in Washington that the net effect of the targeted-killing
program may be counterproductive. “Collateral damage” is seen as an
al Qaeda recruiting tool that undercuts the main rationale for the
drone campaign – to make Americans safer.

“It’s never a good idea to make more enemies than you get rid
of,” a former U.S. national security official said.

Back in 2012, Reason TV offered “3 Reasons U.S. Drone Policy is
Really Freaking Scary.” Watch below: