Yemen has sent tribal representative to investigate the civilians killed by an apparent US drone strike launched over the weekend, according to AFP.
“Three women and a child were among 14 people killed in Sunday’s strike near the town of Radaa,” reports AFP. The supposed target of the bombing was Abdelrauf al-Dahab, a known al-Qaeda member who escaped unharmed.
As a force of habit from longstanding US-Yemeni policy, the Yemeni government initially tried to take responsibility for what is now widely considered to be a US strike. Officials said the targeting mistake was the result of “faulty intelligence.”
Initial reports said the male dead were al-Qaeda militants, but other sources said they were fellow tribesmen of Dahab unnconnected to the jihadist network. As is usual, the Obama administration doesn’t consider it an obligation to explain who it bombs and why.
Indeed, the fact that most of those killed were male may be good enough for Obama, considering his policy of counting “all military-age males in a strike zone as combatants,” as reported by the New York Times.
Not only is the Obama administration sending unprecedented amounts of aid and security assistance to the horrible Yemeni regime which systematically acts as al-Qaeda’s lifeline in order to milk more US support, but they are continuously bombing the “allied” country with drones, generating anti-American hatred and greater al-Qaeda recruitment.
Some people learn from experience. Some nations learn from experience. But not the U.S., the greatest nation in the history of the world according to some of its leaders and citizens.
Depends how you define 'greatness', I suppose. To be the nation that has killed more people than any other nation seems a rather negative achievement. To have the world's biggest army is hardly an achievement for a nation that talks the talk about peace but walks the war road continuously.
Will America ever see itself as the world sees it? I doubt it. It's too busy patting itself on the back!
If White House statements are to be believed, Obama personally signs off on some drone strikes, but not others. Since this strike reportedly aimed to kill a specific, named terrorist leader, it would have been in the former category. That would make Obama directly accountable for the civilian deaths, and responsible for issuing an apology and for compensating victims' families.