Drone Strikes - Death from Above

Drone Strikes: Death From Above

The war in Afghanistan has proved to be very costly. With budget cuts being enforced with the financial meltdown, the Department of Defense is looking for a cheaper alternative to fight the war on terror. This is where drones and other sophisticated autonomous military hardware come into play. One such military platform that has proved its efficiency to combat terrorism is the drone. A drone being a unmanned air vehicle such as the Predator currently used in Afghanistan do not require a lot of human inputs to perform combat missions. They are more efficient in performing tasks that would otherwise require a large number of human soldiers. Also these platforms can perform tasks that humans on their own cannot. These drones are also on top of their game when it comes to gathering intelligence through ELINT (Electronic intelligence) and SIGNT (Signals Intelligence). The armed forces of United States basically have eyes and ears flying behind enemy lines with the capability to bomb suspected terror establishments and hide outs. News about drone strikes are aired frequently and one shouldn’t be surprised about the controversies they have raised. Often the risk of collateral damage is disregarded endangering innocent lives. The safety of this innocent population is being compromised in order to secure our national interests and protect foreign civilians from becoming victims of Jihad. The usage of drones by the CIA should not and cannot be justified as a an acceptable warfare tactic against militants.

The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is a country located in Central Asia. The country is war torn and witnesses daily battles between allied forces (NATO) and Islamic militants. Taliban, an Islamic fundamentalist political movement is responsible for all the bloodshed in the region. While in power, it enforced its strict interpretation of Sharia law, and leading Muslims have been highly critical of the Taliban's interpretations of Islamic law. The government of Afghanistan, a democratically elected body to represent the state of Afghanistan does not have control of all the regional provinces in the country. The Taliban once an ally of the United States of America were deemed an terrorist organization for backing Al Qaeda, the Terror establishment responsible for planning and executing the September,11,2001 attacks in American soil. Shortly after the September 11 attacks in New York and the Pentagon, the United States of America launched the war on terror with the responsibility to destabilize and eradicate terror establishments from remote tribal belts in Afghanistan. But the war has proven costly with mounting military and civilian casualties. The cost for funding the war till date is approximated to be around 662.4 billion U.S dollars (Ref: http://nationalpriorities.org/cost-of/notes-sources/). The United States thus has approached an alternative method to continue its