© William Banzai
Two former US officials, one military general and another top counter-terrorism advisor for President Obama, have publicly denounced the drone wars in Pakistan and Yemen, saying they disproportionately kill civilians and generate anti-American sentiments that aid al-Qaeda recruitment efforts.
Michael Boyle, who was on Obama's counter-terrorism advisory group in the run-up to the 2008 election,
writes in a study for the Chatham House journal
International Affairs that Obama abandoned his pledge to restore respect for the rule of law following the Bush administration.
Obama "has been just as ruthless and indifferent to the rule of law as his predecessor...while President Bush issued a call to arms to defend 'civilisation' against the threat of terrorism, President Obama has waged his war on terror in the shadows, using drone strikes, special operations and sophisticated surveillance to fight a brutal covert war against al-Qaida and other Islamist networks," Boyle writes.
The study concludes that the Obama administration has been "successful in spinning the number of civilian casualties" downward by counting
all military-age males they kill as combatants. Civilian casualties are likely to be far higher than so far acknowledged, Boyle said, and government claims to the contrary are "based on a highly selective and partial reading of the evidence."
