Obama Talks a Lot About How Many Children Assad is Killing, But Conveniently Forgets About Drones
Elahi-Siddiqui
In his speech on Tuesday night, President Obama made an appeal to a largely skeptical American public to support the use of military force in Syria. And he did so, by evoking images that were sure to tug at all of our hearts — images of the Syrian children who had died in the chemical weapons attack in Damascus on August 21. But as Obama continues to voice his outrage against the plight of the Syrian children (which, by the way, he should) he is neglecting to even acknowledge the plight of the Pakistani and Yemeni children who are being killed, not by chemical weapons, but by America’s very own drones.
For long, proponents of the drone war, including Obama who has authorized over 300 strikes in just Pakistan, have held that the strikes are precise and successful in their goal to attack only those deemed to be a security threat to the U.S.
However, just one look at the number of civilians injured or killed by the strikes proves that this narrative is a false one. Between 2004 and 2013, the number of known civilians killed via drone strikes in just Pakistan is said to be up to 900. Of those, close to 200 have been children. In Yemen, American drones are responsible for the deaths of nearly 400 civilians, of which, at least 25 are children.
According to U.N Ambassador Samantha Power, "These weapons kill in the most gruesome possible way. They kill indiscriminately. They are incapable of distinguishing between a child and a rebel."