> The horrific stories you hear about are accidents, not deliberate. Due to incomplete information, poor decision-making, or just plain bad luck, soldiers sometimes kill innocents.
Not true. Just one example: in 2011, Obama authorized the assassination of an American man and his 16-year-old (American) son[0] by separate drone strikes. The father's assassination was completely deliberate. The son was killed two weeks later, when he went looking for his father.
Both the father and the boy were American citizens. Neither was even in a country with which the US is at war (although that wouldn't have been sufficient reason to order the extra-judicial assassinations of these US citizens them even if they were)[1].
Rather than "everyone agreeing this was a tragedy", it was pretty quickly buried in the news. Most news outlets actually refused to even acknowledge that they were American (using the euphemistic epithet "US-born", as if implying that either one renounced his citizenship).
[1] Before anybody takes issue with the characterization of this man and boy as US citizens, arguing that Constitutional rights [should|do] apply to everyone: I certainly agree that the US should not be ordering extra-judicial assassinations of any civilian, American or not. But it's notable in this case, because it highlights the absurdity of the policy. If we can't expect US citizens to be protected against extra-judicial assassination by their own country's government, then what rights can they expect?
Officials in your article say they didn't know the son was there, and were targeting Ibrahim al-Banna. Sounds like an accident to me.
And it sure as hell wasn't buried in the news. It was a controversial event, on the front page of the NYT, and the Administration was forced to clarify specific policies on who they would target with drone strikes.
Not true. Just one example: in 2011, Obama authorized the assassination of an American man and his 16-year-old (American) son[0] by separate drone strikes. The father's assassination was completely deliberate. The son was killed two weeks later, when he went looking for his father.
Both the father and the boy were American citizens. Neither was even in a country with which the US is at war (although that wouldn't have been sufficient reason to order the extra-judicial assassinations of these US citizens them even if they were)[1].
Rather than "everyone agreeing this was a tragedy", it was pretty quickly buried in the news. Most news outlets actually refused to even acknowledge that they were American (using the euphemistic epithet "US-born", as if implying that either one renounced his citizenship).
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdulrahman_al-Awlaki
[1] Before anybody takes issue with the characterization of this man and boy as US citizens, arguing that Constitutional rights [should|do] apply to everyone: I certainly agree that the US should not be ordering extra-judicial assassinations of any civilian, American or not. But it's notable in this case, because it highlights the absurdity of the policy. If we can't expect US citizens to be protected against extra-judicial assassination by their own country's government, then what rights can they expect?