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Show me some evidence to suggest that drone strikes are making things better in the Middle East. Literally anything. ISIS didn't emerge ex nihilo. There's noth
by jdietrich 9y ago
Show me some evidence to suggest that drone strikes are making things better in the Middle East. Literally anything.
ISIS didn't emerge ex nihilo. There's nothing in Aleppo's water supply that turns people into mindless killers. They formed as a direct consequence of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the overthrow of the Syrian regime. If we've learned anything from our history of "intervention" in the middle east, it should be that it's incredibly easy to make matters worse through poorly-planned military intervention. The evidence of our failures in this respect is abundant, going back beyond the 1953 Iran coup to The Great Game and the first Anglo-Afghan war.
Drone strikes and bombing sorties might make you feel better, but there's no evidence whatsoever that they're actually improving the situation. It's equally likely that the bombing campaign in Syria, Pakistan and elsewhere is just giving another generation a plausible reason to despise the western world.
>If ISIS were in your front yard raping your sister and your mother, setting your toddler brother on fire with gasoline while eating your pet dog for dinner -- would you attempt to negotiate?
I'd take up arms to defend myself, and pray that nobody drops a bomb on my house and calls my death "collateral damage".
- briandear 9y agoHere's drone analysis from the liberal-leaning Brooking Institute: https://www.brookings.edu/articles/why-drones-work-the-case-for-washingtons-weapon-of-choice/ https://www.brookings.edu/articles/why-drones-work-the-case-... "Drones have turned al Qaeda’s command and training structures into a liability, forcing the group to choose between having no leaders and risking dead leaders."
- jdietrich 9y agoIt's not at all clear that removing al Qaeda's leadership is a net improvement. A leaderless al Qaeda is potentially more chaotic and more indiscriminately violent; a diminished al Qaeda may simply create a vacuum to be filled by IS or some other group. A lot of this is reminiscent of the drug war. Taking out a kingpin looks like a victory, but it only creates short-term instability and a surge in violence. The root causes remain unchanged. How many people do you need to arrest to eradicate the drug trade? How many people do you need to kill to eradicate extremist ideologies? https://www.crisisgroup.org/global/exploiting-disorder-al-qaeda-and-islamic-state https://www.crisisgroup.org/global/exploiting-disorder-al-qa... https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/middle-east/2015-02-04/al-qaeda-loses-touch https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/middle-east/2015-02-...