It is a measure of how accustomed official Washington has become to endless undeclared wars that the hearing room for the Senate Armed Services Committee was almost empty on Tuesday morning. The questioning of Army General Stephen Townsend, President Trump’s nominee to lead the U.S. Africa Command, was civil, if not perfunctory. In 2018, the...
Category: <span>Drone War</span>
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How Many Civilians Die in CIA Drone Strikes? It Just Got Harder to Say
The reliable Katie Bo Williams reports from the bowels of the U.S. intelligence community (That’s “IC” to some; the “deep state” to others). In Defense One Williams has an update on U.S. drone wars. The Trump administration has breathed new life into the CIA’s covert drone program, which Obama sought to suffocate by shifting control...
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Trump Ramped Up Drone Strikes in America’s Shadow Wars
From the Daily Beast: In 2009 and 2010, Obama launched 186 drone strikes on Yemen, Somalia, and especially Pakistan. Donald Trump’s drone strikes during his own first two years on the three pivotal undeclared battlefields, however, eclipse Obama’s—but without a corresponding reputation for robot-delivered bloodshed, or even anyone taking much notice. In 2017 and 2018...
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While U.S. Strikes al-Qaeda in Yemen, the Saudis Cut Deals With Them
The Long War Journal admits a little-known fact about Saudi Arabia’s starvation war in Yemen. While the U.S. Special Operations Command conducts regular strikes on Al Qaeda in the Arabia Peninsula (AQAP), America’s ally in the Yemen war does not. The Saudi-UAE coalition often avoids targeting AQAP and has cut deals with the group that have...
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