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| MQ-9 Reaper (Image: Wiki Commons) |
By Amitai Etzioni
Amnesty International has just issued a report (PDF) that is highly critical of the use of drones by the United States. Its main concern is the great number of civilian casualties that these strikes cause – the so-called collateral damage. There is considerable disagreement among observers about the extent of these casualties. Amnesty International relies on local people, who, as the report discloses, are keen to call attention to them. Whatever the actual number, though, they deserve careful consideration.
One should first of all note that the main reason for these civilian casualties is that terrorists do not observe the most elementary rule of armed conflict – widely recognized and championed by the International Red Cross – the rule of distinction. Under this rule, military forces should make every effort to separate military targets from civilian ones and spare the latter. Why do American drones have difficulty abiding by this? Mainly because the terrorists use private homes and vehicles to wage attacks on us and our allies; locate their snipers in mosques and on the rooftops of schools; and use ambulances to transport bombs. If terrorists abided by the rule of distinction, collateral damage would be minimized overnight. In short, a good part of the moral onus for these casualties rests with the terrorists.
Read the full story at The Diplomat