When 'Precision Strikes' Erase Children
The pattern hiding in plain sight: FIRST INSTANCE: The notion that drone warfare is 'surgical' and minimizes civilian harm gained traction post-9/11. The US drone program under President Bush (2001-2009) and dramatically expanded under President Obama (2009-2017) was consistently framed as a precise tool against 'terrorists.' Yet, early reports, like those from the Bureau of Investigative
Journalism in 2011, detailed scores of civilian deaths, including children, in Pakistan's tribal areas. One particularly grim example was the 2006 Damadola strike in Pakistan, initially touted as a hit on al-Qaeda leadership, which ended up killing many civilians, including 13 children, though this was later disputed by US officials. REPETITIONS: The narrative of 'unavoidable tragedies' or
'mistakes' has been recycled endlessly. In 2012, a US drone strike in Yemen, targeting al-Qaeda, reportedly killed 12 civilians, 7 of them children, according to local officials (Human Rights Watch, 2013). Fast forward to 2016, and a US drone strike in Syria, supposedly targeting an ISIS leader, killed at least eight civilians, including several children. Each incident sparks momentary outrage,
quickly subsumed by the next news cycle. The 2015 Kunduz hospital bombing by US forces in Afghanistan, which killed 42 people, including 14 staff and 10 patients, despite Doctors Without Borders providing its GPS coordinates, is a stark reminder of how 'precision' can be remarkably imprecise. (Doctors Without Borders, 2016) OUTCOMES: What actually happened each time? A rapid-fire official