splat” is sickening. It also becomes much easier for the United States to start new battles and greatly extend existing conflicts. According to Keith Shurtleff, US army chaplain and ethics instructor, when these soldiers are "physically and psychologically removed from the horrors of battle and see the enemy not as humans but as blips on a screen, there is a danger of losing the deterrent to war that its horrors normally provide." For example, targeting a group of low level terrorist grunts that would normally be ignored could lead to unnecessary conflict and slaughter. Out of around 500 militants killed by drone strikes between 2008 and 2010, only 14 people were "top tier targets" and 25 "middle to high level organizers." Additionally, the number of terrorists in the Arabian Peninsula has actually grown exponentially as the number of drone strikes have increased. The "Underwear Bomber," who tried to blow up an American airliner in 2009, and the "Times Square Bomber," who tried to set off a car bomb in New York
City in 2010, have both stated that they were motivated by drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia. These strikes are unpopular even among the civilians who are victimized by the terrorists. Out of all of the residents in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of northwestern Pakistan, 76% oppose American drone strikes, 16% think these strikes accurately target militants, and a whopping 48% think they largely kill civilians. A top-secret program where robotic hovercrafts annihilate thousands of unknown targets seems like something right out of a dystopian book or movie. In Ender's Game, children play violent simulation games that turn out to be real war…
Drones have many benefits, but the way that they are being used and the fact that the CIA is hiding the program in the shadows cannot go on any longer. US law states that the activities will not be apparent or acknowledged publicly, and the CIA's reluctance to release statistics on the casualties is very suspicious. According to research by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, 20% of some 4,000 killed are civilians and children, while a whopping 3/4 of those targeted and killed are marked as "other militants." The US has been very sensitive when it comes to the system for identifying the affiliation and role of these people, and some go as far as accusing the US of putting any military aged man into this group. A bill was devised in the House of Representatives that will give the CIA a modest amount of transparency and shed light on this program. It would make the governmental statistics public for anyone who was interested enough to pursue them. Currently, the program is not worth it because of the trauma that the strikes bring upon local populations and drone pilots; however, if this bill could instill trust in our government to "take out" the right people, drone strikes would not seem as bad. On the other hand, if the data was too terrible, it would become clear that the program should be abolished until more advances are made. Sadly, this bill has an extremely slim chance of becoming law despite its apparent worth. This shows that there may be something the government is trying to hide. The CIA might be too scared too hear the possible outrage. One thing is for sure. They aren't as scared as they would be if a MQ-1 Predator drone was circling their house.