Predator Drones: the Unsettling Impact
27 March 2013
Predator Drones: The Unsettling Impact Thousands of miles away, an aircraft carrying two hundred pounds of explosives flies over Pakistan while the pilot commands the movement of the innovative aircraft in Indian Springs, Nevada. The highly trained pilot in Nevada is only a mere button away from creating total chaos in the quiet cities of Pakistan. The unmanned aircraft attached with explosives halfway around the world is known as a predator drone, or in short, a drone. The use of drones to surveillance and attack terrorism has been part of the United States of America’s military operations since the war on terror started with President George H. Bush in the 1990s. Only since President Barrack Obama came into office, unmanned aircraft strikes have risen at an alarming rate. In The Reaper Presidency: Obama’s 300th drone strike in Pakistan, The Bureau of Investigative Journalism reports, “…CIA [drone] attacks have struck Pakistan’s tribal areas on average once every five days during Obama’s first term – six time more than under George W. Bush” (Leo, Ross, & Woods 1). The aftermath of drone strikes are devastating, as the strike destroys cars, buildings, and other land within the surrounding miles of the original target. The United States administration needs to create a new drone policy that would regulate the usage of predator drones to a bare minimum, in which all drones would only be in use for surveillance purposes in military operations. Predator drones are unjustifiably taking the lives of innocent civilians, creating mental and physical health issues on both sides of the war, and ultimately causing more harm than good for the United States as the number of people in the targeted drone countries increasingly grow with anti-Americanism. In the article U.S. Ambassador To Pakistan Quits Over Drone Attacks There, Cameron Munter, the newly resigned ambassador of Pakistan explains the three types of predator drone attacks, “1)
Predator Drones: The Unsettling Impact Thousands of miles away, an aircraft carrying two hundred pounds of explosives flies over Pakistan while the pilot commands the movement of the innovative aircraft in Indian Springs, Nevada. The highly trained pilot in Nevada is only a mere button away from creating total chaos in the quiet cities of Pakistan. The unmanned aircraft attached with explosives halfway around the world is known as a predator drone, or in short, a drone. The use of drones to surveillance and attack terrorism has been part of the United States of America’s military operations since the war on terror started with President George H. Bush in the 1990s. Only since President Barrack Obama came into office, unmanned aircraft strikes have risen at an alarming rate. In The Reaper Presidency: Obama’s 300th drone strike in Pakistan, The Bureau of Investigative Journalism reports, “…CIA [drone] attacks have struck Pakistan’s tribal areas on average once every five days during Obama’s first term – six time more than under George W. Bush” (Leo, Ross, & Woods 1). The aftermath of drone strikes are devastating, as the strike destroys cars, buildings, and other land within the surrounding miles of the original target. The United States administration needs to create a new drone policy that would regulate the usage of predator drones to a bare minimum, in which all drones would only be in use for surveillance purposes in military operations. Predator drones are unjustifiably taking the lives of innocent civilians, creating mental and physical health issues on both sides of the war, and ultimately causing more harm than good for the United States as the number of people in the targeted drone countries increasingly grow with anti-Americanism. In the article U.S. Ambassador To Pakistan Quits Over Drone Attacks There, Cameron Munter, the newly resigned ambassador of Pakistan explains the three types of predator drone attacks, “1)
Cited: Ismi, Asad. “Opposition To U.S. Drone Attacks Rises Globally And In U.S. U.S. Ambassador To Pakistan Quits Over Drone Attacks There. Drone-Making Companies Main Lobbyiests For Rising Drone Use.” CCPA Monitor 19.8 (+2013): 28-30. Academic Search Complete. Web. 26 Mar. 2013. Leo, Sarah, Alice Ross, Chris Woods. “The Reaper Presidency: Obama’s 300th drone strike in Pakistan.” The Bureau of Investigative Journalism. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism. Web. 3 Dec. 2012. 26 Mar. 2013. Reardon, Sara. “I spy. With my faraway eye.” New Scientist 217.2901 (2013): 46-49. Academic Search Complete. Web. 26 Mar. 2013. Standford International Human Rights and Conflict Resolution Clinic and Global Justice Clinic at NYU School of Law. “Living Under Drones: Death, Injury, and Trauma to Civilians from U.S. drone practices in Pakistan.” Stanford Law School Web. 2012. 26 Mar. 2013. Unknown. “Out of Sight, Out of Mind” Drones.pitchinteractive.com. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism. 2012. Web. 26 Mar. 2013.