US Needs to Rethink the use of Drones

The United States military on Sunday, 30th May accepted that the killing of civilians earlier this year was a mistake. Early this year the United States military had mistaken a group of travelling civilians as a convoy of Taliban terrorist and killed them using a drone strike. The Incident happened in Uruzgaon and killed 23 innocent people. The United States investigation in the matter yielded that the crew of the drone aircraft had “provided inaccurate reporting” before the whole event took place. It is also mentioned that the ground crew of the unmanned aerial vehicle “failed to properly analyze the situation”.

The crew of the Unmanned Aerial vehicle is also accused of ignoring other officers who suggested that the convoy was not hostile and may only have civilians as a part of it. As quoted by a senior United States military official who was in charge of the investigation “Information that the convoy was anything other than an attacking force was ignored and downplayed by the unmanned aerial vehicle crew”. The United States Security Force’s report card in terms of preventing civilian causalities and property damage was not very good.

The Taliban also cause plenty of civilian damage, in fact majority of the civilians are killed by the Taliban. The Taliban has caused a number of civilian deaths in this conflict, but it’s the United States led foreign troops who have been asked by their government to minimize collateral damage. The Taliban has no such obligation. The Taliban plants bombs and carry out suicide attacks which even though they target the United States military and the government establishments. But these attacks are often carried out in civilian areas and cause many civilian deaths.  The Taliban carry out these attacks and this clearly indicates that they don’t have any regard for the lives for their nationals. But it is the mistakes by the United States military that often get more attention. The Focus of the new war strategy induced by the new President Obama has been protecting the civilians. The Afghans according to Obama should view the United States security forces as protectors and not destroyers.

“Our most important mission here is to protect the Afghan people” stated General McChrystal, the commander of the foreign troops. But the security forces have failed to do so to a great extent. Many experts have condemned the United States strategy of using drones to carry out their attacks against the Taliban. Drone attacks often cause loss of civilian property and life. The United nation’s experts have asked the United States administration to rethink its ploy of using lethal drones. United Nation’s Human Rights experts claim that the use of drones by United States against suspected terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan lacks accountability and does not comply with international law. The United Nations has complained that there is a lack of transparency and accountability in drone attacks. The fact that the United States government has never spoken of its counter terror drone strategy certainly suggests that something is amiss.