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Monday, January 21, 2013
Saturday, November 24, 2012
Obama's First Drone Attack Policy
Since Barack Obama became President, there have been more than 300 drone strikes and some 2,500 people killed by the Central Intelligence Agency and the U.S. military, The New York Times has reported.
Supposedly, the Obama administration is "still pushing to make the rules formal and resolve internal uncertainty and disagreement" about when drone attacks are justified. Prior to his reƫlection, the Obama administration was in a rush to put together some kind of manual or standard operating procedure for drone attacks, to deflect criticism by liberals and progressives, of the Obama administration's reckless use of drone attacks.
Now that he has been safely reƫlected, there's no more pressure on the Obama administration to finalise the administration's first formal drone attack policy. For example, The Times reported that "Mr. Obama and his advisers are still debating whether remote-control killing should be a measure of last resort against imminent threats to the United States, or a more flexible tool, available to help allied governments attack their enemies or to prevent militants from controlling territory."
Will the Obama administration finally deliver a doctrine on its use of extra-judicial "remote-control killing" ?
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