U.S. drone strikes have killed perhaps as many as 116 civilians since 2009, according to the White House.
What, then, is the response from the commander in chief, Barack Obama? He issued an executive order today that redoubles our military’s efforts to avoid killing civilians in future drone strikes.
I can hear it now from critics of the president.
* He’s soft on terrorists.
* Obama isn’t really committed to killing Islamic killers.
* We’re trying to conduct a “politically correct” air war against these monsters.
It’s all crap!
What the executive order signifies to me is that we’re better than the bad guys, who actually target civilians. They seek to go after so-called “soft targets” at airport terminals, train stations, shopping malls, schools, residential neighborhoods.
Our aim in launching these manned and unmanned air strikes has been to take out military targets — which we are doing with considerable effectiveness.
The White House figures are at odds with some independent estimates of civilian deaths, which place the number a good bit greater.
However, let us not give short shrift to U.S. military policy that seeks to minimize these deaths.
Sure, we didn’t always follow that doctrine. U.S. aerial bombardments during World War II targeted civilian population centers specifically. But that was then.
We are able in this modern age to launch air strikes with remarkable precision and accuracy. Are they always successful? Are we able to carry these strikes without inflicting death and injury on civilians? Of course not.
We shouldn’t change our standards to match the barbarism committed by our enemies.