Drone Strikes Research

Much controversy surrounds the use of drone strikes to mitigate terrorism. Many believe it is effective in eradicating terrorists, however the aftermath of the situation is quite contradictory. Drone strikes “kill women, children, they kill everybody. It’s a war,

The 9/11 attacks killed 2,996 people and injured over 6,000. According to the U.S. State Department’s annual Country Report on Terrorism 2015, 28,328 people around the world were victims of terrorists in that year. By killing terrorists with targeted drone strikes, the U.S. military disrupts and slows down terrorist organizations. In the War on Terror, it is difficult to determine how successful drone strikes have been. However, if we did nothing to fight or stop the terrorists they would be able to recruit, grow, and attack without fear. Despite potential downsides, drone strikes need to continue. It is impossible to estimate how many terrorist attacks have been stopped or how many lives have been saved due to successful drone attacks, but imagine the devastation of unrestrained terrorist

The CIA was authorized to kill anywhere in the world without any Presidential approval after President Bush signed a Memorandum of Notification. As quoted from Background on Drones, “When the first strike occurred from the Predator on February 4th, 2002, it fired on a group that was believed to have Osama bin Laden included, but when the targets were all killed, it turned out they were just civilians.” Since the attacks on 9/11, over 95% of all of the non-battlefield targeted killings were conducted by drones. On November 16-17 an event by the name of the Global Drone Summit will bring together people from across the world who discuss the strategies to put an end to the proliferation of drones used for

Most Americans are in favor of drone strikes. A 2013 survey suggests 69% of Republicans, 60% of Independents and 59% of Democrats support the use of drone strikes in Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen (ProCon). The next president of the United States will have to decide if our country will keep using drones and improve the drone program. It has been said that drone strikes are used as a “recruitment tool” for terrorist organizations such as the Taliban and the Islamic State (Pilkington and MacAskill). Even though most civilians in the Middle East hate drone strikes; the United States collaborates with local governments in the Middle East who gives us jurisdiction to carry out these strikes. For example in Pakistan where most drone strikes occur; they have decreased violence in that region. The Pakistani President even admitted to asking the US to conduct more drone strikes in his country (ProCon). If drones were not effective foreign government officials would not ask for more drone

In response to the 9/11 terror attacks, President George W. Bush declared an all out war on global terrorism. To fight this war, the Bush administration introduced a new weapon, creating the highly secretive US Drone program, pushing the bounds of technology, giving UAVs the power to take life with impunity. In 2009, Barack Obama became president and the rise of the killer drones began. His campaign in the Middle East and abroad would usher in a new age of warfare, one fought not in trenches or fields, but from small air-conditioned rooms, while great Birds of Prey rain Hellfire down upon enemies half a world away; one where powerful men decide who will live

In a world filled with violence, peace and safety are two things Americans desperately hope for. Terrorist cells such as al Qaeda, the Taliban and the Islamic State, commonly known as ISIS, play a major role in the violence throughout the world today. Terrorist groups attack their own countries as well as America and other European nations. United States drones are one tool our country uses to counter terrorism around the world.

Ever since 2001 the united states has been using drones known as uavs and predators to locate or destroy terrorists and their out posts, before we used drones it was very expensive to find terrorists as we had to use satellites until we built the Gnat or known as the Predator drone and shortly after the drone was made it was put to work. The Predator drone was used in the mission to find Osama Bin Laden after the september 11 attacks. This adds to the long-time debate over Drone use, there are pros and cons to the use of Drone strikes some believe we should use Drone strikes yet others believe it's ‘’unsafe and has a playstation mentality’’. We should use drones because Drone strike destroy terrorist networks all

Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, a sixteen-years-old boy, was a third American killed by CIA drone strikes in Yemen while searching for his father, Anwar al-Awlaki, also an American citizen, who had been killed in a U.S. drone strike (Finn and Browning). Although drones kill not only terrorists but also innocent civilians including children like Abdulrahman, many drone strikes have been made to Pakistan between the year of 2004 and 2012. This is because the United States military successfully kills targeted enemies without losing a soldier by using drones. However, civilians living near the targeted area are killed by the drones as killer drones can’t accurately focus on the enemies. Therefore, the military’s

Terrorist attacks are designed to promote fear into all witnesses and victims of their attacks. Drones put that same fear into all leaders of terrorist organizations. Former President Obama once said this on drone strikes, “We’ve seen violent extremists pushed out of their sanctuaries. We’ve struck major blows against al Qaeda leadership as well as the Taliban’s. They’re worried about their own safety. It’s harder for them to move, it’s harder for them to train and to plot and to attack. All of that makes America safer” (Williams). Even through fear, it saves Americans and civilian lives in the area from attacks from these blood-thirsty organizations. Furthermore, having the capability to send drones to attack leaders saves the lives of the

Strikes conducted by remotely piloted aircraft may undermine counterterrorism efforts or enhance them depending on the nature of the violence, the precision with which it is applied, or the intentionality attributed to it. (Kalyvas, 2006; Downes, 2007; Kocher et al., 2011) . Existing research has studied the effects of coercive airpower, (Pape, 1996; Horowitz and Reiter, 2001) , targeted killings (Jaeger, 2009; Jordan, 2009; Johnston, 2012; Price, 2012) and civilian victimization (Kalyvas, 2006; Lyall, 2009; Condra and Shapiro, 2012), but social scientists have conducted little empirical analysis of the effects of drone strikes.

hough the actual number of civilian causalities was always high, yet, according to US officials, drone strikes have caused relatively few civilian deaths, and sometimes drones caused no harm at all. Luckily, there were some leaks in the media regarding the causalities. Obama Administration officials have claimed that the number of causalities is just between 20 and 50 civilians since 2008. In a report, US officials claimed there were just 50 civilian deaths since 2001 to 2011. Former Director of the CIA, Leon Panetta, said, that airstrikes in Pakistan made a limited amount of collateral damage, he said it in 2009. CIA and US officials was busy in hiding the real collateral damages caused by drone strikes. The actual damage on property was all ways very high according to the eye witnesses and the local media reports.

Drone strikes in places like Yemen and Afghanistan have killed tons of high level commanders eliminating terrorists networks. Drone strikes have killed bomb makers, operators, and trainers that includes 3,500 militants. If people see their loved ones killed by drone strikes they might start to go against the US. As drone strikes take out terrorist groups it will make it harder for people to join. Taliban say drones are

Of the 174 to 1047 deaths in Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia since the United States began using drone attacks in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, drones are responsible for 8-17%of those deaths, a relatively low number when compared to civilian fatalities in World War II, which were 40-60% of all war deaths,a relatively low number when compared to civilians fatalities in the World War II, which were 40-60% of all war deaths, civilians fatalities in the Korean War, which were 31% of all war deaths, or civilian fatalities in the Balkan War, which were 45% of all war deaths

According to the Obama Administration the military has launched out 450 drone strikes in Pakistan and Yemen combined (Stern). Not only is 450 drone strikes a big number, out of all those 450 drone strikes not a single US soldier was killed or harmed. According to Stern’s article “Obama and Terrorism” it states “around 200 civilians” were killed (Stern). In the documentary film Unmanned: America’s Drone Wars community leaders in Pakistan gather suitably with the media to discuss the inhumanity of drone strikes. Dr. Bashir Khan, political organizer, made an assumption as to what our military drone pilots do when controlling drones “You press a button too annihilate entire families and tribes”(qtd. In BraveNewFilms). Drones were not being accurate with their targets nor being well organized at first. In the same documentary “Unmanned: America’s Drone Wars” it highlights the story of sixteen-year-old Tariq Aziz on how his life was traumatized by drone strikes when his cousin was killed unintentionally by a drone strike. Days later, after Tariq participated in a public conference against how drone strikes need to stop killing innocent people, and how the pilots are very inexperienced with controlling drones Tariq was also killed by an drone

Opponents argue that by removing one of the key restraints to warfare – the risk to one’s own forces – unmanned systems make undertaking armed attacks too easy and will make war more likely. Evidence is beginning to emerge that it is the persistent presence of UAVs sitting over remote villages and towns simply looking for ‘targets of opportunity’ that may be leading to civilian casualties. The CIA oversees drone strikes as part of counterterrorism operations, but US officials refuse to discuss the program publicly. According to a tally by the nonpartisan New America Foundation, since 2004 there have been more than 260 US drone strikes in Pakistan, which the foundation estimates killed between 1,600 and 2,500 people. Not everyone feels comfortable with all this. Critics say that the legal and