How many innocent civilian deaths and injuries occur with the United States drone program? Yes, the terrorists need to be eliminated, but how many innocent people are being killed or injured with the death of each terrorist? The data regarding collateral damage needs to be released to the public. Here is a link to an interesting Amnesty International report:
http://www.amnestyusa.org/research/reports/will-i-be-next-us-drone-strikes-in-pakistan
Is it a legal act for the United States to use drones to kill a terrorist or a group of terrorists in other countries? The Obama administration feels that America has the legal right to fly these unmanned armed aerial devices into countries like Pakistan, Iraq and Yemen and knock off the terrorists. Here is a court memo that is being used by the Obama administration to support their legal right to use armed drones to kill an American citizen overseas.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/230989775/Barron-Drone-Memorandum
On the other side of the argument, the United Nations General Assembly released a report that raises concerns with countries that use armed drones for targeted killings in other countries. The UN brings up some very important issues in this report. Please refer to the section of this report titled “The Use of Drones for Targeted Killing (Section G) starting at page 24.
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/docs/14session/A.HRC.14.24.Add6.pdf
The United States using drones is seen more and more by the rest of the world as another time that America preaches Democracy and freedom and then turns around and gets on its high horse and arbitrary sends drones into another country, that may kill the wanted terrorist, but also collaterally injure or kill other innocent people. This is a public relations nightmare.
Copyright© Edge of Humanity LLC 2015
