Obama has been President exactly three weeks and in that time he has accomplished quite a bit that I can be proud of. He has ordered a suspension of the "trials" for Guantanamo prisoners, refunded stem cell research, signed an executive order making it clear that we will not torture, signed the fair pay act, ordered the DEA to stop raiding medical marijuana dispensaries, thereby ending the stupid constitutional conflict between the Feds and the States, and many other things.
There is one thing that President Obama has done that I don't agree with and think is very counter-productive. Mere days after being sworn into office, he authorized an attack on the tribal region of Pakistan using unmanned drones.
I am not arguing that these attacks were bad from my position as a pacifist; but rather, from the pragmatic position that these attacks actually hurt our mission in the area. Pakistan has nuclear weapons and tops the list (along with Mexico, believe it or not) of nations most likely to suffer a complete collapse of government. To the people of these tribal regions, unmanned drone attacks are the cowards way of fighting a war and help foster hostility towards the US and by extension the existing Pakistani government.
Obviously, sending manned bombers increases the risk to soldiers lives; but, war shouldn't be easy. When fighting a war (or playing a game of chess) you have to keep your ultimate objective in mind when making any move. The use of unmanned drones might kill the target you are looking for; but, if doing so increases the number of radicals and further destabilizes the Pakistani government, then you are winning the battle while losing the war.
War is a dirty, nasty, messy (and yes, evil) enterprise; but, I shudder to think that we as a nation might arrive at a day where we can wage a war without risk to American lives. It seems to me that one of the last checks on America's military power is the public's aversion to body bags.
So in short, unmanned drones are bad, not only because they undermine your primary objective, but also because they give the untruthful impression that they are without cost.
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3 comments:
In case it wasn't clear, my title is implying that Obama has now become "The Man".
The Man is now a little kinder and gentler, but The Man nonetheless.
I was disappointed and saddened by this as well, if not surprised.
It was your blog post and my subsequent comment that inspired this post.
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