Why Washington’s Drone Warfare Overseas Is A Strategic Mistake

We all know how Senator Rand Paul courageously demanded some answers from the White House last week about its use of drones against American citizens in the United States.

But setting aside the chilling precedent the Obama Administration set with its summary execution of US citizen Anwar al-Awlaki, National Review columnist Mark Steyn made an interesting point on Hugh Hewitt’s radio show:

“I’d like to speak to that, because I’m not, you said the people who are
at ease with the use of drones in Waziristan and Yemen, and not at home,
I’m not actually all that comfortable about the expansion of their use
overseas. I think in a psychological sense, it fits into al Qaeda and
the broader Muslims’ worldview of the West, which is that we are
technologically advanced, but that we are deficient in a kind of moral
fiber, and that the sort of antiseptic drone strike that hovers above
your Waziristani village, and then takes out the bad guy, but also takes
out 27 members of the wedding party across the street, that somehow
that actually, I’m not persuaded that that is, that the reliance on
drones is in the long term strategic interest of the United States.”

The use of drones simply reinforces a very negative image of the United States. It’s a strategic blunder as well as a chilling, precedent-setting new form of warfare that has already been used unlawfully by Washington. When will the madness end?