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Only 12% of People Killed in US Drone Strikes in Pakistan Identified as Militants, Sa

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TheDemSocialist

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Research by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, an independent news organisation based at City University, London, has found that only 12% of victims of US drone strikes in Pakistan could be identified as militants.
In a report, released by the organisation on Thursday, researchers also found that fewer than 4% of those killed have been identified as members of al Qaeda.
The report said that out of the 2,379 known victims of drone strikes between June 2004 and October 2014, 704 have been identified. Only 295 of these were reported to be members of some kind of armed group.


The report alleges that of those there were “few corroborating details” to account for those who were solely listed as “militants”. More than a third of them were not designated a rank within their militant organisation, and almost 30% were not even linked to a specific group.
Only 84 of those designated as militants could be identified as members of al Qaeda, less than 4% of the total number of people killed.
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Read more @: Only 12% of People Killed in US Drone Strikes in Pakistan Identified as Militants, Sa

Drone at will! Seems that we have been lied to yet again about our drone program. We dont “ only target confirmed terrorist targets at the highest level”. I bet its more like this:
9zlk55.png
 
Re: Only 12% of People Killed in US Drone Strikes in Pakistan Identified as Militants

They are brown and from the wrong region in the world... What other reason do we need?
 
Re: Only 12% of People Killed in US Drone Strikes in Pakistan Identified as Militants

I see you are trusting sources that got your agenda again. Even this "journalist" organization doesn't say what the other 88% are. So they may well have been human shields, trainees, and future combatants you no longer need to worry about.



TheDemSocialist said:
Read more @: Only 12% of People Killed in US Drone Strikes in Pakistan Identified as Militants, Sa

Drone at will! Seems that we have been lied to yet again about our drone program. We dont “ only target confirmed terrorist targets at the highest level”. I bet its more like this:
9zlk55.png
[/FONT][/COLOR]
Click to expand...
 
Re: Only 12% of People Killed in US Drone Strikes in Pakistan Identified as Militants

Jetboogieman said:
They are brown and from the wrong region in the world... What other reason do we need?
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They are brown and from the wrong region in the world... What other reason does Obama need?
 
Re: Only 12% of People Killed in US Drone Strikes in Pakistan Identified as Militants

TheDemSocialist said:
Read more @: Only 12% of People Killed in US Drone Strikes in Pakistan Identified as Militants, Sa

Drone at will! Seems that we have been lied to yet again about our drone program. We dont “ only target confirmed terrorist targets at the highest level”. I bet its more like this:
9zlk55.png
[/FONT][/COLOR]
Click to expand...


The correct number is 42% of those identified were "militants". There is no way of knowing the status of those not identified.
I wonder how may civilians were killed in Iraq by our "shock and awe" attacks before the invasion? The best estimates for the Iraq war are over 100,000 civilians including women and children killed. Drones are far more humane than invasion.
 
Re: Only 12% of People Killed in US Drone Strikes in Pakistan Identified as Militants

iguanaman said:
The correct number is 42% of those identified were "militants". There is no way of knowing the status of those not identified.
I wonder how may civilians were killed in Iraq by our "shock and awe" attacks before the invasion? The best estimates for the Iraq war are over 100,000 civilians including women and children killed. Drones are far more humane than invasion.
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You betcha! The onliest way to fight unhumanitarian terror, death, chaos and destruction is with humanitarian terror, death, chaos, and destruction.
 
Re: Only 12% of People Killed in US Drone Strikes in Pakistan Identified as Militants

Jetboogieman said:
They are brown and from the wrong region in the world... What other reason do we need?
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You may want to not join on the idiocy. This finding is.....

well, it's an extreme outlier from all the other scholarship done, and seems in its language to have been constructed as such.


If we take out a vehicle with a commander and his two bodyguards, for example, is only one an "identified militant" or "member of al-Qaeda"?



I'm generally 100% in favor of blasting Obama for his idiotic and destructive foreign "policy" (if we have a policy, I am unable to determine what it is), but he has reduced the portion of civilian casualties in drone strikes.
 
Re: Only 12% of People Killed in US Drone Strikes in Pakistan Identified as Militants

How was it confirmed that 100% of those drone victims not yet identified were not "terrorists"? It seems that even your biased source has over 40% of the identified drone victims counted as valid targets.

edit: If one were to bomb a typical U,S, military base, killing everyone present, then only about 25% of those killed would be active duty military personnel.
 
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Re: Only 12% of People Killed in US Drone Strikes in Pakistan Identified as Militants

If a terrorist gets droned in his home with his entire family I don't care and if a terrorist lives next door to you it s best to move or better yet tell him to move.
 
Re: Only 12% of People Killed in US Drone Strikes in Pakistan Identified as Militants

TheDemSocialist said:
Read more @: Only 12% of People Killed in US Drone Strikes in Pakistan Identified as Militants, Sa

Drone at will! Seems that we have been lied to yet again about our drone program. We dont “ only target confirmed terrorist targets at the highest level”. I bet its more like this:
9zlk55.png
[/FONT][/COLOR]
Click to expand...

The terrorists hide among the local population. Of course there's going to be collateral damage. They want collatteral damage for propaganda reasons, because they know you will help spread their propaganda, for free.
 
Re: Only 12% of People Killed in US Drone Strikes in Pakistan Identified as Militants

apdst said:
The terrorists hide among the local population. Of course there's going to be collateral damage. They want collatteral damage for propaganda reasons, because they know you will help spread their propaganda, for free.
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Uhhhh... Or we play into their propaganda.. We just created their "propaganda" by killing all those innocents.
 
Re: Only 12% of People Killed in US Drone Strikes in Pakistan Identified as Militants

TheDemSocialist said:
Uhhhh... Or we play into their propaganda.. We just created their "propaganda" by killing all those innocents.
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The alternative is to leave terrorist unmolested
 
Re: Only 12% of People Killed in US Drone Strikes in Pakistan Identified as Militants

TheDemSocialist said:
Uhhhh... Or we play into their propaganda.. We just created their "propaganda" by killing all those innocents.
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They can always lie about it, too. We didn't create anything, but congragulations for helping them spread their propaganda.
 
Re: Only 12% of People Killed in US Drone Strikes in Pakistan Identified as Militants

TheDemSocialist said:
Uhhhh... Or we play into their propaganda.. We just created their "propaganda" by killing all those innocents.
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Actually Drone strikes feature dramatically fewer civilian casualties than more conventional military operations.
 
Re: Only 12% of People Killed in US Drone Strikes in Pakistan Identified as Militants

apdst said:
They can always lie about it, too. We didn't create anything, but congragulations for helping them spread their propaganda.
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University of Nebraska Omaha Afghanistan Studies.
 
Re: Only 12% of People Killed in US Drone Strikes in Pakistan Identified as Militants

cpwill said:
Actually Drone strikes feature dramatically fewer civilian casualties than more conventional military operations.
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All the while terrifying the entirety of the population.

Granny's walking down the street, BOOM, smoking crater with grandma's mangled bloody guts splayed out everywhere. Which is brought to you happily by the United States, "When we murder you, we prefer to do it in the most evil way possible!"
 
Re: Only 12% of People Killed in US Drone Strikes in Pakistan Identified as Militants

brothern said:
All the while terrifying the entirety of the population.

Granny's walking down the street, BOOM, smoking crater with grandma's mangled bloody guts splayed out everywhere. Which is brought to you happily by the United States, "When we murder you, we prefer to do it in the most evil way possible!"
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:roll: if hysteria is how you want to formulate foreign policy, you belong in the anti-war movement, but gosh I hope nobody ever takes you seriously.



Anywho,

...By the count of the Bureau of Investigative Journalism in London, which has done perhaps the most detailed and skeptical study of the strikes, the C.I.A. operators are improving their performance. The bureau has documented a notable drop in the civilian proportion of drone casualties, to 16 percent of those killed in 2011 from 28 percent in 2008. This year, by the bureau’s count, just three of the 152 people killed in drone strikes through July 7 were civilians....
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Re: Only 12% of People Killed in US Drone Strikes in Pakistan Identified as Militants

apdst said:
The terrorists hide among the local population. Of course there's going to be collateral damage. They want collatteral damage for propaganda reasons, because they know you will help spread their propaganda, for free.
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But giving them the opportunity to show their buddies that the US is bombing women and children isn't helping them spread their propaganda?
 
Re: Only 12% of People Killed in US Drone Strikes in Pakistan Identified as Militants

cpwill said:
:roll: if hysteria is how you want to formulate foreign policy, you belong in the anti-war movement, but gosh I hope nobody ever takes you seriously.
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Well, drone strikes at funerals and against first responders does not help our mission much in the long-run.
 
Re: Only 12% of People Killed in US Drone Strikes in Pakistan Identified as Militants

Jango said:
Well, drone strikes at funerals and against first responders does not help our mission much in the long-run.
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On the contrary - drones have proven both effective and more ethical as a strike option.
 
Re: Only 12% of People Killed in US Drone Strikes in Pakistan Identified as Militants

TeleKat said:
But giving them the opportunity to show their buddies that the US is bombing women and children isn't helping them spread their propaganda?
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....you realize you are talking to people who have actually been there when they kill innocents and then blame it on the US?


:lol: we had a village where they slaughtered some cows and smeared them all over the buildings and - sure enough - got CNN to report Marines Kill 200 Civilians.... :roll:
 
Re: Only 12% of People Killed in US Drone Strikes in Pakistan Identified as Militants

cpwill said:
....you realize you are talking to people who have actually been there when they kill innocents and then blame it on the US?


:lol: we had a village where they slaughtered some cows and smeared them all over the buildings and - sure enough - got CNN to report Marines Kill 200 Civilians.... :roll:
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So your solution is to kill civillians since they think we're doing it anyway?
 
Re: Only 12% of People Killed in US Drone Strikes in Pakistan Identified as Militants

TeleKat said:
So your solution is to kill civillians since they think we're doing it anyway?
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No. As someone who has both A) been to war and B) done actual targeting, I've observed the processes you are talking about, and am pointing out that what you are saying does not match reality. US Forces do not go around just blowing up civilians, in fact, we go to great lengths and often risk our lives in order to reduce the risk to civilians.
 
Re: Only 12% of People Killed in US Drone Strikes in Pakistan Identified as Militants

cpwill said:
On the contrary - drones have proven both effective and more ethical as a strike option.
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By whose standard? Children in targeted areas are afraid of the blue sky and exhibit PTSD symptoms. I'm not arguing against their effectiveness, just that they are a recruitment platform, especially how willy nilly and indiscriminately we've used them.
 
Re: Only 12% of People Killed in US Drone Strikes in Pakistan Identified as Militants

cpwill said:
No. As someone who has both A) been to war and B) done actual targeting, I've observed the processes you are talking about, and am pointing out that they do not match reality. US Forces do not go around just blowing up civilians, in fact, we go to great lengths and often risk our lives in order to reduce the risk to civilians.
Click to expand...

Your experiences are not universal. And yes, we do blow up civilians, but we just don't call them that, as if they appear to be of military age, they're then considered legitimate targets.
 
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