U.S. Drone Attacks and Pakistan State Sovereignty

The CIA and the U.S. military have been using drones for more than 100 years, but only in the past 10 years the public has realized how powerful this technology is. Drones should be used to combat terrorism in Afghanistan because they are a step into the future for warfare. Drones are some of the most used technologies that are used to combat terrorism in foreign countries, and there is a reason for that. Drones are used to spy, track, and assassinate high priority terrorists. Regular ways of warfare are not working in Afghanistan and Pakistan because the terrorists are very good at hiding, and looking for them on foot is a not only a tedious job, but it is also extremely dangerous. Just like with any new technology, especially technology that kills, there are always controversies. Although there is problems with the current drone technology and the drone program in general, all these problems can be easily fixed. There are many more positive aspects to the drone program that overwhelm the negative aspects of it.

Comprehending the underlying authority for the President of the United States to authorize the international use of military operations in order to respond to an attack or as a counter-terrorism strategy, may be difficult to fathom for those who are not familiar with practices and philosophies associated in this realm. Conducting military operations against the Taliban government in Afghanistan, detaining suspected terrorists, both indefinitely domestically and abroad, and the use of unmanned drones to disrupt and destroy suspected terrorists and those aiding them in areas such as Pakistan fall under the umbrella of what the US has been able to accomplish in our last 12 years during the Global War on Terror.

Article One: Dainel Byman, in his article Why Drones Work: The Case for Washington’s weapon of Choice in an August 2013 article in the Brookings Institute, identifies the positive impact of US drone strikes. Byman contends that US drone strikes are extremely efficient, at little financial cost to the government, and protect the lives of American soldiers. For these reasons, Byman believes that US drone strikes are necessary to the war on terror.

2001-Al Qaeda terrorists in Afghanistan are targeted by the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), and the CIA’s

Years preceding the terrorist attack on the 11th of September 2001, the CIA and the United States Air Force had already developed the facility to use aerial vehicles, piloted remotely, as weapons. Yet, it was the occurrence of 9/11 that sparked the use of armed remote-piloted aerial vehicles (better known as drones) in the global ‘War of Terror’ led by the United States. The purpose of this position paper is to examine the legality of the covert armed drone program, specifically in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) in Pakistan. It will consider the extent of accuracy of the legal frameworks relative to the drone program and targeted killings. To do so, exploring the context in which the United States justifies its actions and military strategies regarding the Global War on Terror is important. This paper will be providing a review of, amongst other references, two pieces of academic literature that discuss the presence of drone warfare in Pakistan: Mark Mazzetti’s The Way of the Knife: The CIA, A Secret Army, and a War at the Ends of the Earth and David Sanger’s Confront and Conceal: Obama’s Secret Wars and Surprising Use of American Power. They will be used as evidence to support the questionability of the legal frameworks relative to the armed drone conflict.

The U.S government started using unarmed drones in 2000 to monitor Afghanistan when the country was at war. The drone program was expanded when the September 11 attacks happened as a way to counteract the terrorists. Drones were used a surveillance but this time most drones are armed with missiles to weaken and destroy terrorist groups power. The death toll from the expansion of the program, according to the human rights group Reprieve, found that in 2014 that US killed 1,147 people in Pakistan and Yemen in the course of targeting only 41 men. This has caused a debate on whether to continue to use drones or to destroy the programs. A large amount of

When determining whether or not drone attacks should be initiated, the attacks should be approved and have an legitimate reason for carrying out the attack. Everyday drones are used to pin-point "suspicious activity" as well as daily activities around many communities. According to the article half of the 170 strikes were classified as signature strikes. "...signature strikes against targets outside of named kill list, targeting individuals based on their pattern of life or suspicious behavior". Signature strikes should be reprimanded to have full approval when deciding whether or not someone might be a threat. The article states "The administration's first known Predator strike occurred Feb. 4,2002 in Afghanistan, when a CIA Predator drone

The United States Military has been carrying out a covert program called Kill/Capture in the war-torn country of Afghanistan. Led by a secretive military command called the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), the goal of the program is to target and then kill or capture important members of a violent insurgent terrorist group called the Taliban. The Kill/Capture initiative has successfully taken out more than 12,000 militants affiliated with the Taliban. However, the program is offending the Afghan culture, killing civilians, creating excessive violence, and radicalizing and further antagonizing the Taliban. The Kill/Capture

After the September attacks on the World Trade Center, the government started to send in drone airstrikes to minimize terrorist forces. The drones are sent by a nearby ally state and controlled in the United States, then head towards areas in

Fourteen years ago on February 2nd, 2002, the CIA first used an unmanned Predator drone in a targeted killing. The attack was performed in Paktia province, Afghanistan, intended to kill Osama Bin Laden or at least someone who worked for the CIA had thought so, they ended up firing the drone against a “tall man”, someone who was 6 inches shorter (at 5 feet 11)than Bin Laden whom had long hair and was wearing robes. Even though this height is taller than average, it goes to say nearly anybody within this range who is a “tall man”, wearing traditional clothes and with lengthy hair (which is a very vague description for the CIA to go by), could have been mistakened for Laden himself. Drone warfare does not only target those who are not a threat,

Drones are an effective counter insurgency tool deployed extensively throughout the world, especially by clandestine intelligence organizations often with the help of the country’s respective Air Force. Not only do they serve as an effective weapon, they minimize human

There has been a long debate about drone strikes. Some people believe that we should stop drone strikes and others believe we should continue drone strikes. We should do drone strikes because it keeps the United States safer from terrorist networks in the world and Drones kill less than any other military weapon.

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

*BOOM* *BOOM* Those are the sounds of two missiles striking the land of Pakistan. What is your immediate reaction when you hear them near you? Is it panic? That is believable because of most innocent citizens in Pakistan experience these effects of terror. Drones, unmanned aerial vehicles, have formed the main source for missile strikes in Pakistan from the International Society of Automation (ISA) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the United States. It is presumed that with these drone attacks, it will help to eliminate the terrorists that are supported by the government in Pakistan. The question is “Does it legitimately make a major difference?”, for this is one of the major debates on this topic.

For some years now, United States involvement in foreign countries has been limited, but their presence has been widely known and discouraged. For those Islamic states drones strikes had been present for years but for how long?The first official drone strike was 9 months after 9/11, it was on Taliban Supreme Commander Mullah Mohammed Omar. It was initially a CIA secret weapon.The CIA had kept the project secret for as long as they could, but U.S. Air force general William Begert. For years drone strikes in Islamic states have been problems and have been addressed by both countries. Many call them a problem while I say they are not.