[Peace-discuss] President Peace’s Predators

[C. G. Estabrook]

	President Peace’s Predators
	Posted: 19 Oct 2009 05:47 AM PDT

Seems like President Barack Obama — Nobel Peace Laureate Obama – has taken his 
predecessor’s predator drone program and jacked it up with steroids. The New 
Yorker’s Jane Mayer reports this week that the number of Obama-authorized 
strikes in Pakistan equals the sum launched by the Bush Administration — in the 
last three years of his tenure. Wow. And the Republicans were worried that he 
wouldn’t be man enough. Mayer’s article goes on to detail two predator drone 
programs — one publicly acknowledged by the U.S Military, the other directed by 
the C.I.A:

     From Mayer: The U.S. government runs two drone programs. The military’s 
version, which is publicly acknowledged, operates in the recognized war zones of 
Afghanistan and Iraq, and targets combatants in support of U.S. troops stationed 
there. The C.I.A.’s program is aimed at terror suspects around the world, 
including in places where U.S. troops are not based. The program is classified 
as covert, and the C.I.A. declines to provide any information to the public 
about where it operates, how it selects targets, who is in charge, or how many 
people have been killed. Nevertheless, reports of fatal air strikes in Pakistan 
emerge every few days. According to a new study by the New America Foundation, 
the number of drone strikes has gone up dramatically since Obama became 
President. General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, the defense contractor that 
manufactures the Predator and its more heavily armed sibling, the Reaper, can 
barely keep up with the government’s demand. With public disenchantment mounting 
over the U.S. troop deployment in Afghanistan, many in Washington support an 
even greater reliance on Predator strikes. And because of the program’s secrecy, 
there is no visible system of accountability in place. Peter W. Singer, the 
author of “Wired for War,” a recent book about the robotics revolution in modern 
combat, argues that the drone program is worryingly “seductive,” because it 
creates the perception that war can be “costless.” Cut off from the realities of 
the bombings in Pakistan, Americans have been insulated from the human toll, as 
well as the political and moral consequences.