Collateral damage.
In war, even today’s age of smart and more precise weapons, it is something that simply cannot be avoided. To guarantee no civilian deaths in any war is simply impossible — even more so in the Middle East, given how the combatants our armed forces are facing continually use civilians to mask their presence.
However, even given all of this, the findings of the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, a non-profit group based in London, are simply inexcusable. According to a recent study they released, American drones have killed anywhere from 2,309 to 2,880 people in covert attacks since 2004.
Of those killed, the study found at least 392, and as many as 783, were civilians. Even worse, however, is the number of civilians believed to be children — at least 168.
If you need more than statistics, there are many stories on the devastation these strikes have done to families. For instance, one of the families the study mentions is Din Mohammed’s, who lived next to a house of alleged insurgents.
When the CIA’s Reaper drones fired its Hellfire missiles on the insurgents, one missed and hit the Mohammed house. Although six of the supposed insurgents were killed, so too were Din Mohammed’s son, two daughters and his nephew.
Unfortunately, this is only one of many similar stories.
If the report is to be believed, we traded the lives of four innocent kids for those of six supposed fighters. What cannot be counted is how many more people may be spurred to fight the U.S. because of tragedies like this.
The CIA, the department behind these covert attacks, denies these allegations, claiming the study is “faulty and