White House Defends Drones Despite Civilian Deaths
'Sometimes You Have to Take Life to Save Lives'
It’s no real secret that the Obama Administration’s ever escalating drone war has killed a massive lot of innocent people, but White House counterterrorism advisor John Brennan was surprisingly glib today when pressed on the matter in an interview with ABC’s “This Week.”
“Unfortunately, in war, there are casualties, including among the civilian population,” Brennan insisted, though he did not mention that the drone strikes have been carried out almost exclusively in nations with which the United States is not at war: Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia.
Brennan went on to defend the killings, saying “sometimes you have to take life to save lives.” He provided no examples of how the killing of nearly 2,000 people, virtually all of them unidentified, had “saved lives.”
Indeed the only thing that the drone strikes have conclusively done is ruin the US relationship with Pakistan, whose parliament has conditioned a return to normal relations on the US ending such attacks.
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Nathan
April 29th, 2012 at 8:40 pm
Lookingt forward to Nremberg trial for war crimes. In the court of public openion, however, the US has already been judged, and it don't look good at all.
Nathan
April 29th, 2012 at 8:44 pm
Terrorism is not war. There's no record showing that Congress has declared war on Pakistan or Yeman.
Nathan
April 29th, 2012 at 8:58 pm
“Sometimes you have to take life to save lives.”
What a stupid babble. Like, you have to go to war to preserve peace, or you have to start begging for food and money so that you won't need the help of other people.
Who was the guy who wrote 1984? I’m getting too old to remember things, but I believe he would have called it “moron-speak”.
Nathan
April 29th, 2012 at 9:02 pm
I hink I should read the articles completely before starting to post comments. That way I don’t have to comment four times on a single article, right Thomas? Or was it Thamas?
[moderator's note: It's Thomas -- and comment however you feel like. Some people prefer to put all their thoughts in one comment after reading the article, some prefer a separate comment for each thing they're talking about. It's all good - TLK]
Ira Epstein
April 29th, 2012 at 9:11 pm
"Sometimes you have to take life to safe lives." Mr Brennan's mind probably operates in the same manner as a bookkeeper except with him the debits and credits are human lives and not money. If we kill ten innocent people and save one hundred innocent people then the number of innocent lives saved exceeds the number of innocent people killed by a factor of ten more than justifying the expenditure. I wonder what Mr. Brennan would think of his little moral (amoral?) formulation if the innocent people to be killed were his wife and children?
CassandraSpeaks
April 29th, 2012 at 9:53 pm
Nathan, you must mean international public opinion. Domestically, it plays well.
Danton
April 30th, 2012 at 12:47 am
Gosh, guys, sorry to kill you but killing people saves lives so be glad you are dead you brown lump of garbage.
the Lion
April 30th, 2012 at 3:04 am
MMMM. Mr Brennan cast your mind back to 9/11 New York and you might find out how Pakistan finds the USE of Drone aircraft to kill its Unarmed Civilians, was that acceptable to Americans well it isnt acceptable to Pakistan or in fact any country. Even the comment by some here that the US hasnt declared War on Pakistan, the US hasnt declared War on ANYONE since it declared War on Thailand in 1943.
That teh US also uses Civilians (the CIA) to wage its attacks with drones in Pakistan is also dispicable, its not warfare at all. it is in fact exactly the same as AlQaeda did to the United States, it is in fact an act of Terrorism, not Warfare.
Anybody that says otherwise is in fact giving material support to Terrorists!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
same oldstuff
April 30th, 2012 at 7:22 am
next stop bombing USA cities because there are some drug dealers in them…. ridiculous
Watson
April 30th, 2012 at 7:52 am
"1984": George Orwell, real name Eric Blair
pendulum
April 30th, 2012 at 8:34 am
the guy is a trogledyte, a schoolyard bully
smithy1000
April 30th, 2012 at 10:02 am
The US has destroyed two countries as of now. The US has never had a problem with civilian casualties.
The US is responsible for more civilian casualties than any other country in history.
We killed at least a million civilians in Vietnam. That is one reason we lost that war.
Killing civilians is why we are going to lose the so called "war on terror"
Ralph Fletcher
April 30th, 2012 at 11:37 am
Brennan is simply "Scary Stupid." It's mind blowing. How in the world do people like Brennan advance?
Washingtonsucks
April 30th, 2012 at 12:35 pm
No problem Nathan, I like handing out thumbs up and you tallied four instead of just one from me:-}}
ML3
April 30th, 2012 at 3:47 pm
The guy who says something glib like this, knows there is sadly little to no chance of retaliation for his crimes
Spoken like a true terrorist whore
Tom Mauel
April 30th, 2012 at 6:50 pm
Medea Benjamin heard protesting at the White House news conference on the drone war on CBS radio this evening.
Rick
April 30th, 2012 at 6:58 pm
So I guess if in the process of trying to stop a thief from stealing a little old lady's purse I gun down 20 innocent people its ok, right?