Americas Drone Wars and Dirty Wars - Coursework Example

Running head: obamas drone wars 14th May US has adopted various strategies in its foreign policies. These include diplomacy, aids, foreign trade, military deterrence and International monetary structure. One of the major issues that the world is concerned with is the use of drones by the US to fight terrorism. As indicated by Obama, US is focused at adopting new security measures. Despite the many deaths of innocent citizens Afghanistan and Pakistan as indicated in this paper, the US government has continued to employ drones in its warfare an aspect that has resulted to legal concern. Through the Unmanned: America’s Drone Wars and Dirty Wars it is clear that the night strikes by the drones have caused large number of deaths in Afghanistan. This implies that even though every country must put in place effective ways of dealing with terrorism, adequate and reliable information must be obtained before drones are employed in the military operations in order to avoid deaths of innocent civilians. Introduction For the last 10 years, US has continued to use of unmanned aerial vehicles also referred to as drones in various countries. Being controlled by the central intelligence special division, drones were mostly used by Bush administration especially in Northwest Pakistan. President Obama continued with the drones campaign that was a limited version of the strategies used by Bush to fight terrorism. Some of the places where US military is fighting terrorisms include Nigeria, Philippines, Afghanistan, Yemen and Mali. By the use of remote control, the drones for example the MQ-9 Reaper and MQ-1 Predator are conducted as if it is a video game. While the predator can fly up to 24 hours, the Reaper can fly for 14 hours without refueling. In the last five years, during the Obama rule more than 2,400 people have died as the result of drones strike. This is an indication that as the president, Obama significantly believes in the use of drones to fight terrorism. Despite the efforts by US to strictly face off their target who were the militants, there resulted to civilian causalities after the attack. During the same day, another attack was launched resulting to another civilian casualty. Obama was notified about the civilian casualties an issue that made him to be very worried. Terrorism has for a long time been a challenging issue globally (Fischer and William, 1991). This has not only made the US to be at the forefront in curbing terrorism but other countries have now turned to supporting the country to deal with terrorist in countries such as Nigeria and Pakistan among others. This paper seeks to examine the use of drones and whether there are practical, moral, ethical or legal issues that are related to their use. America’s foreign policy One of the major components of US foreign policy is diplomacy. This refers to the ways through which US relates with other countries at the international level. Being undertaken by professional diplomats, diplomacy has made US to be involved in providing political and financial assistance in other countries (Kennan, 1985). Apart from relating well with developing countries in the African region, US has entered into diplomatic ties with developed countries. For example, US and the people Republic of China undertakes their diplomacy through semi-formal channels such as academic thinktanks. Small states diplomacy has also been used by America. This is based on the challenges such as water security and climate change that are being experienced in small states (Iriye, 1995). As the result of the support that the US has offered the upcoming states, the countries has initiated international cooperation with US an aspect that is vital for global security. Another US foreign policy is foreign aid. Based on the problems that various countries are facing for example lack of adequate food, air accidents and climate change, US has continued to provide sustainable foreign aid (Cunningham, 2005). US foreign aid is given either in the form of economic or military assistance. Key countries that benefits from US aid include states that are recovering from the war, countries that are of great importance to US and developing countries (Aufricht, 1964). One of the major factor that rendered US as a country that provides aid to other states was the Foreign Assistance Act that was passed in 1961. The act created a separation between the non-military and military aids. Through the US Agency for International Development, USAID, an initiative that was started by President Kennedy, US has continued to give aid to other countries as a way of fostering their economic as well as societal development. As the result of the high demand of the US aid, the country has spent huge amount of funds as aid. For example, in 2012 economic and military total aid stood at $48.4 billion while in 2013, the US government spent $50.6 Billion. The third foreign policy aspect that is applied by US is the military deterrence. Military deterrence is the only option that can apply when states do not engage in diplomacy in case of attacks from internal and external forces. Each and every country has to protect the citizens through the use of military deterrence even if it has positive and negative implications though the advantages outweigh the disadvantages in case of terror attacks (Dorman, 2003). For example, United States through the leadership of president barrack Obama has promised the Nigeria government that they are going to do everything possible to rescue the 223 school girls that have been abducted by the Boko Haram militias. This promise was engaged when John Kerry a diplomat assed the situation and this lead to Kerry admitting that the situation has to engage the military deterrence (Schelling, 1966). The plan to send the interdisciplinary team of United States military is a need so that they can help and assist the hostages in Nigeria (George, 1991). Through the use of specialist unit who can curb Boko Haram Nigeria government in combination with U.S military troops will be of importance. Though on the other hand the military troops are accused of human rights violation since killing of innocent civilians is likely to happen in the effort to destroy Boko Haram. International monetary structure is another component of US foreign policy that is used to promote international trade by exchanging the currency of particular country its currency. The aim of international monetary structure is to prevent unstable exchange rate (Brodie, 1959). In case the economy is deteriorating, the international monetary structure help through medium term loans so that they can be part and parcel of stable economy of the county. Technical assistance is given by the international monetary structure where they are going to monitor the exchange rate and taxation policies of a particular country (Polak, 1999). Since United States has quite a stable economy and still has a high number of states it has the highest voting power due to the economic strength with an 18 percent. The decision on whether the loan to be given is determined by a 24 member board who vote according to the countries economic strength (Aufricht, 1964). The structure is mainly concerned with credit union. United states is a major foreign trader for example coffee is a key commodity which is exported to other countries and still it can be imported incase there is scarcity of the commodity. The foreign trade is an economic booster to the economy where revenue is generated thus increasing the gross domestic product of United States. Exchange rate and taxation is usually minimized for the countries so that they can import and export their commodities. United states have set policy where business transactions can be conducted at a reduced taxation and exchange rate is still lowered (Freedman, 2004). Offshore outsourcing is still done where countries can establish companies in other countries to act as distributors where employment is created and leads to economic stability. Through the use of foreign trade positive and negative implications can result for example hard drugs can get access to United States and smuggling can emanate through foreign trade though the advantages outweigh the disadvantages (Jentleson and Thomas, 2011). Economically, foreign trade is of importance since it boosts the economy and also creates employment and if offshore outsourcing is done innovation and creativity is achieved. The use of drones would fit in military deterrence where it can be used to fight terrorist who violate human right through mass killing and use of automated machines to cause destructions. Drones like MQ-9 Reaper and MQ-1 Predators can be used and controlled do destroy the entire terrorists who engage the government in the war. For instance, the Boko Haram in Nigeria is much of the threat to the Nigerian residents and if adequate intelligence report is achieved then drones can be used. Obama’s position According to president Obama, his government has been adopting various strategies as a tightening security in the transportation systems, hardening targets and new tools to prevent terror attacks. However, some of the strategies that the country adopted for example increased surveillance compromised the privacy of the country. Some of the major achievement that the president said US has achieved includes changing the course of al Qaeda, destruction of al Qaeda leadership and ending war in Iraq. The presidents added that US is safer due to their own efforts. The US government aims at getting it military out from Afghanistan and help the government to train its own military (Jentleson, 2010). The security measures according to the new order would entail shifting the use of drones from Central Intelligence Agency to military. Supporting data Approximately 65% of the Americans are of the opinion that US should continue using drones in other countries in its effort to fight terrorists. Similarly 41% of the Americans are for the idea that the government should use drones to strike U.S citizens in other country who are suspected terrorists. 25% support the use of drones against terrorists living in America while 13 % supports the use of drones in US to strike US citizens who are suspected terrorists. According to Pew research center, 68% of the republican approve the use of drones while 58% and 50% of democrats and independent respectively approves the use of drones. Despite the debate that was held by the Congress for example due to the killing of Anwar al-Alwaki , a terrorist who was an American citizen, the research did not touch on the legal issues that touches on the use of drones. Critical data Despite lack of acknowledgment by the US government on the significant number of civilians who have died as a result of strikes by drones, The Bureau of Investigative Journalism indicates that from 2004 to 2012, drone strikes killed approximately 2,500 individuals in Pakistan (Jack, 2014). Approximately 480 of these people were civilians who included 176 children. The same report indicated that over 1,220 people were injured. However, the government has made efforts to ensure that it meets it target. In 2004, a drone strike killed Nek Muhammad Wazir in 2005 it killed Al-Qaeda leader Haitham al-Yemeni and 5 civilian casualties. The same year Abu Hamza Rabia an Al-Qaeda was also killed (McCormick, 2012). With 330 drones attack in Pakistan, the US has significantly addressed the terrorist activities (Hill, 2011). Recently, America has reduced the number of drone attacks in Pakistan for example in 2013 a strike was conducted after every 2 or 3 weeks but number of strikes has significantly reduced as the result of US new security measures. The last strike was in December 2013 with no drone strike in Pakistan in 2014. Data from the documentaries Unmanned: America’s Drone Wars and Dirty Wars According to the Unmanned: America’s Drone Wars and Dirty Wars documentary that investigated the impact of drones globally, there has been huge loss of lives in the world due to the use of drones. The documentary shows that in 2010, two pregnant women died after a night raid in Afghanistan while Mohammed Daoud an American police commander was one of the casualties. According to information released by the US, the two women died as the result of attack by Taliban killing. Mr. Scahill, documentary indicates that during one week in Afghanistan there were 1,700 such raids resulting to high number of deaths. In addition, the documentary indicates the night raids that were conducted by Joint Special Operations Command occurred in even countries where was not declared such as Jordan, Algeria and Indonesia among others. Contributions from other sources The use of drones has not only been criticized by Scahill in his documentary, but also a lot of people and organizations have come up with information that challenges the applications of drones in the fight against terrorists. For example, according to Amnesty international, the secret drones campaign that has been undertaken by the US officials is a war crime and those involved should stand a trial (LaFeber, 1995). According to the Human rights watch, the use of drones in Yemen contravened the laws of armed conflicts in addition to being contrary of the Obama guidelines on the use of drones. In his article on why drones work, Daniel Byman depicts that even though Obama recent call was to reduce the use of drones in US war campaigns, they still remain his major weapon of choice (Peter, 2012). This is indicated by the fact that during his tenure, George W. Bush oversaw the use of les than 50 drones but within his first four years of administration Obama has signified off on over 400 drones in his efforts to curb terrorism activities. Major areas that the drones have been employed include Yemen, Somali and Pakistan. New American foundation indicates that Obama relies on drones simply because they work. In Pakistan and Yemen, more than 3,300 al Queda as well as Taliban have been killed since Obama took the office. Conclusion Major foreign policies that the US has adopted include diplomacy, foreign aid, military deterrence, International monetary structure and foreign trade (Callieres, 1991). Based on its developed military technology, Obama government has significantly used drones to address terrorism in many countries. According to Obama, the use of extensive surveillance has made the US to expose details that are supposed to be private. As indicated by then supporting data on the use of drones, majority of the US residents standing at 65% approve that the America should continue to use drones in other nations as a major way to fight terrorism (Kissinger, 1999). Based on the terror attacks that have been experienced in developed as well as developing countries, it is the duty of the countries to come up with all the means to curb the terrorists’ activities. According to my opinion, the use of drones will be effective in war against terror. The major issue lies on the way the strikes are undertaken. While it is difficult to determine who is a terrorist and who is not, it is imperative that the US adopts extensive intelligence report before undertaking any drone strike. As the result of large number of civilians and innocent individuals deaths due to use of drones, the US may be affected negatively in the long-term. Before the use of drones, it is imperative that more information is collected by the military and then an undercover operation be conducted so that innocent citizens are evacuated without providing a clue to the terrorists of the attack. References Aufricht, H. (1964). The International Monetary Fund; legal bases, structure, functions. New York: F.A. Praeger.  Brodie, B. (1959).The Anatomy of Deterrence as found in Strategy in the Missile Age, Princeton: Princeton University Press. Callieres, F. (1991). The Practice of Diplomacy. London: Sage. Cunningham, G. (2005). Journey to Become a Diplomat: With a Guide to Careers in World Affairs. London: FPA Global Vision Books. Dorman, S. (2003). Inside a U.S. Embassy: How the Foreign Service Works for America by American Foreign Service Association .New York: Macmillan. Fischer, R and William L. 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