Obama's drone killing-spree — being overseen by his CIA director-nominee John Brennan — is coming under increasing attack, from one of Obama's former campaign advisors, as well as from a former Bush counter-terrorism advisor, and even from retired Army General Stanley McChrystal.
Michael Boyle, who was a member of Obama's counter-terrorism advisory group during the 2008 campaign, in an article to be published by the Chatham House journal International Affairs, said that Obama abandoned his pledge to restore respect for the rule of law. "Instead, he has been just as ruthless and indifferent to the rule of law as his predecessor," Boyle wrote, as quoted by the London Guardian on Nov. 8, adding that "while President Bush issued a call to arms to defend 'civilization' against the threat of terrorism, President Obama has waged his war on terror in the shadows, using drone strikes, special operations and sophisticated surveillance to fight a brutal covert war against al-Qaeda and other Islamist networks."
Boyle particularly ridiculed the Obama Administration's claims of minimal civilian casualties, noting that the Administration counts all military-age men in a strike zone as militants or terrorists. The "guilt by association" approach has led to a loosening of standards, so that, he says: "The consequences can be seen in the targeting of mosques or funeral processions that kill non-combatants and tear at the social fabric of the regions where they occur. No one really knows the number of deaths caused by drones in these distant, sometimes ungoverned, lands."
Meanwhile, Robert Grenier, who headed the CIA's counter-terrorism center from 2004 to 2006, and was previously a CIA station chief in Pakistan, has pointed out the folly of the drone policy, stating (as quoted by antiwar.com): "We have gone a long way down the road of creating a situation where we are creating more enemies than we are removing from the battlefield. We are already there with regards to Pakistan and Afghanistan."
And former General Stanley McChrystal, the Afghanistan commander who was fired by Obama, has warned that the overuse of drone strikes is jeopardizing U.S. objectives. "What scares me about drone strikes is how they are perceived around the world," he said in an interview with Reuters. "The resentment created by American use of unmanned strikes ... is much greater than the average American appreciates. They are hated on a visceral level, even by people who've never seen one or seen the effects of one." McChrystal said the use of drones exacerbates a "perception of American arrogance that says, 'Well, we can fly where we want, we can shoot where we want, because we can.'"
As if to illustrate his point, the Obama Administration launched at least four separate drone strikes in the tribal regions of Pakistan on Tuesday, killing at least 25 people. According to Associated Press, three separate drone attacks in the South Waziristan mountains killed at least 17 people, and eight were killed in a separate strike in North Waziristan.
Obama's drone strikes will be an issue in the upcoming confirmation hearings for John Brennan. In an interview with MSNBC, Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) said he is concerned about Brennan becoming CIA director because of the drone policy. Corker noted how the Obama team describes Brennan. "The White House has portrayed him as a priestly figure that sits in a room in the White House with no windows, and decides each day who he's going to execute around the world with drones," Corker said, adding that he also expects the "left" to make a big issue out of this in the confirmation hearings.
