Philosophy Discussion Forums | A Humans-Only Club for Open-Minded Discussion & Debate

[Mo_reese]

The use of drone missiles to target enemy personnel was started under the admin of Pres G.W. Bush and was expanded significantly by Pres Obama.
These strikes have been used in countries like Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia.

Presidents have used, “The Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) of 2001”, and “The Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002” as authorization for the drone missile strikes. These resolutions are very broad and have been interpreted very broadly to give the president a lot of leeway in the decisions for using these strikes.

Are the drone missile strikes effective at combating terrorism?

Are there adequate controls on the use of drone strikes by presidents?

Aren't drone strikes themselves the epitome of terrorism?

[Pattern-chaser]

Are the drone missile strikes effective at combating terrorism?

IMO, no form of military action is "effective" against so-called terrorism. Often, terrorism is only a matter of perspective. One man's terrorist is another man's freedom-fighter...? It's probably more useful to delve into the reasons why certain people or groups see fit to conduct operations that some see as terrorism.

[LuckyR]

It depends on the definition of "effective", which depends on the goal that is trying to be accomplished. Many have the goal of eliminating or significantly diminishing the number of terrorists. To me this is an impossible and therefore ridiculous goal. Especially when one considers that terrorism is a technique, not an independent ideology.

Thus a reasonable and preferable goal is lowering the ability of terrorists that happen to be aligned against you, from being able to carry out large-scale attacks upon you. When viewed through that lens, drone strikes against the "brains" of terror groups are likely quite "effective", even though they can be a recruiting tool for those groups, since recruits add relatively little to the group's ability to carry out large-scale attacks.