Propagandized drone strike data — President Obama’s Drone Murder Waltz

© 2016 Peter Free

06 July 2016

 

Look at this released drone death data — from a scientifically minded perspective

According to the Feds, we killed between 2372 and 2581 enemy “combatants” and 64 to 116 “non-combatants” in counter-terrorism strikes in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria — during the period from 20 January 2009 and 31 December 2015.

Sounds a little too precise, doesn’t it?

2372 — not “about 2300”

2581— not “about 3000”

64 to 116 — not “maybe 50 or so to 120 or 130 or more”

 

Follow the inference

Government wants us to reason that its uncertainty (as to the range of deaths) is due solely to not knowing who was vaporized or unrecognizably splattered by the strike. This is the seeming randomness in blast and shrapnel coverage that we accept as inevitable in “war”.

At the same time, however, the Government’s overly precise numbers subtly encourage us to think that Big Daddy knows exactly how many folks (and who) were present at the site of each explosive impact. For example again — 2372, not “maybe about 2300”.

This intentionally misleading precision is a propaganda trick. Government agreeably admits to ambiguity in its calculation of the range of deadliness for each blast. But it does not admit to not knowing exactly who was inside each targeted area.

The public is also implicitly encouraged to infer from the low reported number of innocents killed, that these unfortunates sadly strayed into areas that no wise person would have gone. Or perhaps that these folks were singled out by God to have a bad day.

We can imply that the U.S. certainly had nothing to do with them being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Ho-hum collateral damage, so to speak.

 

In truth, the Government’s numbers are bullshit

Our first clue to the concocted nature of this data comes from the fact that the Government admits (in other contexts) that it lacks even marginally reliable human intelligence on the ground.

Lacking trustworthy contacts at the sites involved, do we really have an accurate idea as to how many people were hit? Just from looking at video and photographs?

Recall, also, that these kill numbers come from a leadership that has ludicrously categorized all military aged males as enemy combatants. Such a classification would not even have been accurate during World War II’s era of total conflagration.

Not only do we not reliably know who was within the kill zone, we arbitrarily classify virtually every male there as a bad guy. Because, conveniently, it is pretty hard to tell how old someone was after they have been blown to bits. Which pretty much just leaves women-looking women and child-looking children among the bodies to be casually tossed into the Killed by Oops Category.

 

The moral? — Do we really think that the American Military Industrial Complex has a genuine interest in tracking the scope of its highly profitable Drone Killing Operation?

There is nothing about the American drone murder process that passes the Not a War Criminal Test.

Delusion underlies our sense of righteousness.  Delusion confuses our understanding of the meaning of the word, terror.