Brian Cloughley: Killing Kids for Freedom

"I want to make sure that people understand: Actually, drones have not caused a huge number of civilian casualties in Pakistan. For the most part, they have been very precise precision strikes against Al Qaeda and their affiliates." "The bureau counted 260 strikes in Pakistan by Predator and Reaper drones since President Obama took office, and it is said that 282 to 535 civilians had been 'credibly reported' killed in those attacks, including more than 60 children. American officials said that the number was much too high, though they acknowledged that at least several dozen civilians had been killed inadvertently in strikes aimed at militant suspects." "I can say that the types of operations that the US has been involved in, in the counter-terrorism realm, that nearly for the past year there hasn't been a single collateral death because of the exceptional proficiency, precision of the capabilities that we've been able to develop." Although US officials declare that the number of civilians reported by independent sources as having been killed in Pakistan by Obama's drone missiles is "much too high", they don't say what their own assessed figure might be. They claim that only "several dozen" have died. And the President of the United States says that several dozen is not a 'huge number' of dead innocents. Either these people don't know the figures or they don't care about them. What's five dozen dead kids, after all? Are they important? Of course not. So tap the mouse, flick the switch, hit the keys, because it's all in the best interests of "compelling the kill chain" that the soaring drones roam and reap their harvest of blood. And get this, and get it good, all these missile strikes that kill people are against "militant suspects."