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Obama’s Multibillion Dollar Drone Program Undercuts Civilian Governments
By the time John Brennan, President Barack Obama’s nominee to be the next director of the Central Intelligence Agency, finished three hours of public testimony before the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, two things were clear.
First, Mr Brennan will be confirmed. And second, despite nearly a dozen years of war, there are profound disagreements both within the United States and beyond about how this conflict has been and should be waged.
Mr Brennan provided a forceful defence of the Obama administration’s war against al-Qaeda over the past four years, particularly its increased employment of drones in various countries he declined to specify.
He made clear that the administration believes it has the legal authority to use lethal force in self-defence against al-Qaeda and associated forces wherever there is an imminent threat against the United States and capture is not feasible.
The committee was clearly supportive of the continued use of drones in the ongoing war against al-Qaeda. Americans by a wide margin share this view.
But that is not the case outside the United States. The rest of the world questions the legality of their use, viscerally so in a country such as Pakistan, where drone attacks increased significantly during President Obama’s first term.
