U.S. Drone Strikes: Can they be Justified?

With the terrorist group ISIS advancing through large swathes of Iraq and Syria, leaving a bloody trail behind them, it is no surprise to see the United States leading drone strikes against them to try and halt their progress. There is an old saying that “one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.” However in this case this couldn’t be further than the truth – ISIS are pure evil, with force required to try and defeat them. These drone strikes help to stall their progress and weaken their numbers. Drone strikes are nothing new, but how justifiable they are remains to be seen.

Drone strikes have been used effectively for over ten years. One of the main positives about the drone strikes are that the drones themselves’ are unmanned and difficult to detect, meaning they can be used effectively. Many of Al-Qaeda’s most influential personnel have been killed by targeted drone strikes. Of course the cost of these drone strikes are the main negative – just one predator drone will cost a minimum of $5M!

Back to the overall argument and it is difficult to ask whether or not they can be justified. Drone strikes have been in operation since 2002. I have taken a small sample of information which can help to represent some overall statistics. Below is a table showing statistics from the New America Foundation, showing the effect of the drone strikes:

It is worth stressing that these are just statistics for Pakistan. This table completely discounts the drone strikes currently being used in Iraq and Syria to try and stop the movement of ISIS. In total in the last ten years there have been almost 3,000 in total killed by the drone strikes. What is important when choosing whether or not they can be justified or not is to look at the civilian column. 286 civilians have been killed in drone strikes in Pakistan.

This is 286 victims of the conflict. It is highly unfortunate for them to be caught up in this conflict, after all, they are just civilians. What it comes down to is the question of whether or not it is acceptable to make this sacrifice to kill 2,291 militants. Within reason, there is one civilian death for every ten militants killed. It can be argued that this is for the greater good. It is of course as mentioned very unfortunate for civilians to be caught up in this – but at the end of the day USA and other countries taking part in drone strikes are just looking out for their best interests.

They have a duty too protect their own civilians – if drone strikes can do this, then surely it is acceptable for civilian casualties – as long as there aren’t many of them. But then the counter argument to this is that what price can you put on an innocent life? Out of the civilians killed – it is likely that many of these people would’ve had families – families that have been dis-jointed as a result of these strikes. There is also research to suggest that these drone strikes actually cause more people to come up against USA – they see it as an act of aggression. It is also worth bearing in mind that the data I used above was just for one country – this number would be huge if it was on a worldwide scale.

Overall there are some evil, evil people in this world. The USA  have helped enormously to protect their own citizens against many militants – these drone strikes are perhaps the main cause of this. Although it may seem harsh, it is almost necessary that for as many civilians lives’ that are lost – it is ultimately worth it as more people are safe because of it. It is a difficult subject – one that open to opinion – everyone will have different ideas over how fair the strikes are – but one thing is for certain, they aren’t going to stop anytime soon.

/MF/
(‘019’)

Rape: The Heinous Crime

Some things are culturally seen as being unacceptable. We all have an innate sense of what is right and wrong. One thing that is certainly not right is the act of rape. Rape is an act which can ruin lives, not just for the victim, but for the family of the victim as well. The number of rapes reported in the UK and Wales per year is at an all-time high, statistics from the Office of National Statistics show. In total there were 22,196 recorded in the year to June. This marks a 29% increase from the previous year. This is a remarkable increase which appears to be terrible, however, perhaps this isn’t as bad as it looks, as I will explore.

Obviously rape is a very serious crime, a crime that many people feel incredibly passionate about. In the UK the topic has been in the news heavily due to footballer Ched Evans – a convicted rapist due for release from prison. It has been suggested that his former team Sheffield United will be re-employing him, something many are not keen on. The furore surrounding this was only heightened due to TV presenter Judy Finnigan remarking that the rape was “not violent.” This choice of words causes uproar, with Finnigan eventually apologising for her comments. Rapper CeeLo Green was another example of someone who was criticized for their comments on rape.

These comments were not well received either. However I mentioned in the Introduction that this mass increase isn’t all bad. This is mainly due to the belief that more people are willing to report to authorities about rape. So often victims of rape feel too ashamed, mentally unstable or just scared to go to the authorities and tell them what happened. Such a large increase in part can be attributed to how victims appear to be more willing to report the crime. There isn’t much more of a positive spin on this statistic, the only other positive idea is that due to this large increase, a major push from authorities based around preventing or limiting rape could be on the horizon – although sadly this doesn’t look likely.

Despite that brief positive, the statistics don’t lie. A 29% increase, over 20,000 rapes, these are very damning statistics. I once studied Philosophy and Ethics, where a discussion was held about the worst sort of crime – the majority of answers were “rape”. For an act which is condemned by so many to be this wide-stretched, it is terrible. It is a dangerous world, but a person should not have to be overly-cautious about worrying about rape, the sad thing is though, people do, and with good reason as well. For however much you can look at that one positive, overall this is a very damning statistic.

Overall as I have no doubt made clear, rape is a terrible act. It is almost universally condemned. Yet here in the UK it is a major problem – 20,000 rapes in a year is a terrible amount, think of all the damage it has done. And these are only recorded crimes as well. The graph above also shows other sexual offences, once again there has been a large increase, it begs the question when is something serious going to be done about this. It is not a pleasant world when such terrible acts happen so frequently.

/MF/
(‘018’)

Picture Credit: BBC News
Notes: Both CeeLo Green and Judy Finnigan apologised for their comments. Ched Evans is due to be released from prison on Friday, 17th October.