WASHINGTON, February 2 (Sputnik) — In December of 2013, a US drone strike killed fifteen people on their way to a wedding in the Yemeni countryside. Officials said the airstrike missed its intended target and struck the civilian convoy. This is one example of several of unintended deaths in the US drone war.
In a piece for Infowars, Ron Paul notes that this is President’s Obama’s idea of “a successful model of US anti-terrorism strategy.”
“The US government has killed at least dozens of civilian non-combatants in Yemen, but even those it counts as ‘militants’ may actually be civilians,” Paul writes.
This is just one of several reasons why the US drone policy – a strategy which President Obama plans to employ in the fight against ISIL – is a failure.
He argues that these kind of civilian deaths contributed to a Shiite takeover of the Yemeni government last week.
Paul also cites the Charlie Hebdo shooting in Paris last month, in which one of the suspects partially blamed the US as a motivating factor in his actions.
“At least one of the accused shooters cited his anger over US policy in the Middle East as a motivation for him to attack.”
If the intended goal of drone strikes – to eliminate the terrorist threat – is having the opposite effect, and in fact inspiring terrorists, then what is the benefit?
“That is the question that the interventionists fear most. If blowback is real, if they do not hate us because we are so rich and free but because of what our governments are doing to them, then US interventionism is making us less safe and less free,” Paul writes.
He closes by stressing that before the US continues on a path that has failed one country, it should reevaluate its tactics.
“The lesson from Yemen is not to stay the course that has failed so miserably. It is to end a failed foreign policy that is killing civilians, creating radicals, and making us less safe.
