“We’ve been talking about this for a good while, the immorality of drones, dropping bombs on innocent people. It’s been over 200 children so far. These are war crimes.” (Gavin) Princeton professor Cornel West says during the Smiley & West radio show. Drone strikes have been an area of controversy, but the topic is usually under the radar in the typical American’s life. This tale of immoral or moral goes further than whether droning people is evil or not. Drones kill hundreds of innocent people, but they also manage to kill terrorists. Do drone strikes cause more harm than good? I am here to prove to you that they ultimately do cause more harm than good because it kills many civilians, it harms the mental state of survivors and even operators
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and the harboring country concur to attempt a drone strike, they have already determined that the target is causing some sort of terrorism and mayhem in the community. An article from The Atlantic written by Michael Lewis, begins to tell us how the drones actually are able to shadow targets for extended periods of time in order to determine when the best time is before they attempt the bombing. “Their ability to follow targets for days or weeks accomplishes two things that contribute to saving the lives of innocents: First, it confirms that the target is engaged in the behavior that put them on the target list, reducing the likelihood of striking someone based on faulty intelligence. Second, by establishing a "pattern of life" for the intended target, it allows operators to predict when the target will be sufficiently isolated to allow a strike that is unlikely to harm civilians.”(Lewis) While saving the life of civilians is in the best interest of the government agencies and the drone operators, there is no avoiding the inevitable death of innocent people. In a study from New York and Stanford Universities, called “Living Under Drones:Death,Injury, and Trauma to Civilians from US Drone Practices in Pakistan,” depicts the actual amount of civilian deaths that have occurred since the US have begun their drone program. The article, being from 2012 has 5 years of civilian death unrecorded, which may have increased since the rise of ISIS. “A new joint study from New York and Stanford Universities, "Living Under Drones: Death, Injury, and Trauma to Civilians from US Drone Practices in Pakistan," estimates from an analysis of public records that as many as 881 civilians, including 176 children, have been killed since the US covert drone program began.” (Mulrine) The number of terrorists dead is much greater than this number, but this number is astounding. Nearly 1000 civilians in total dead, including the children, and this is only due to the drone
and the harboring country concur to attempt a drone strike, they have already determined that the target is causing some sort of terrorism and mayhem in the community. An article from The Atlantic written by Michael Lewis, begins to tell us how the drones actually are able to shadow targets for extended periods of time in order to determine when the best time is before they attempt the bombing. “Their ability to follow targets for days or weeks accomplishes two things that contribute to saving the lives of innocents: First, it confirms that the target is engaged in the behavior that put them on the target list, reducing the likelihood of striking someone based on faulty intelligence. Second, by establishing a "pattern of life" for the intended target, it allows operators to predict when the target will be sufficiently isolated to allow a strike that is unlikely to harm civilians.”(Lewis) While saving the life of civilians is in the best interest of the government agencies and the drone operators, there is no avoiding the inevitable death of innocent people. In a study from New York and Stanford Universities, called “Living Under Drones:Death,Injury, and Trauma to Civilians from US Drone Practices in Pakistan,” depicts the actual amount of civilian deaths that have occurred since the US have begun their drone program. The article, being from 2012 has 5 years of civilian death unrecorded, which may have increased since the rise of ISIS. “A new joint study from New York and Stanford Universities, "Living Under Drones: Death, Injury, and Trauma to Civilians from US Drone Practices in Pakistan," estimates from an analysis of public records that as many as 881 civilians, including 176 children, have been killed since the US covert drone program began.” (Mulrine) The number of terrorists dead is much greater than this number, but this number is astounding. Nearly 1000 civilians in total dead, including the children, and this is only due to the drone