US Drone Strikes

The cluster centers on debates about US drone strikes, particularly criticisms of extrajudicial killings, civilian casualties, targeting US citizens without due process, and their expansion under the Obama administration.

➡️ Stable 0.7x Politics & Society
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Keywords

USG US die.html wikipedia.org ISIS CIA POTUS UK nytimes.com SA drone strikes drones strike obama war civilian killed innocent kill

Sample Comments

toomuchtodo Dec 11, 2013 View on HN

Or drone strikes against civilians?

jonathanstrange Mar 18, 2021 View on HN

Yes, because these are extrajudicial killings with high death tolls and serious injuries for bystanders.Suppose China, Russia, or the EU would conduct drone strikes on US soil but only target evil people such as Donald Rumsfeld, who is known to have ordered torture and initiated a war under false pretense. However, many bystanders including women and children would be killed as well. Would you be against it?I would be against that, no doubt about it.

theevocater Jan 18, 2013 View on HN

Let's not forget "Ignore the fact that we are using drones to kill families in other countries without declaring war and denying US citizens the right to a trial by holding them indefinitely"

torstenvl Jul 4, 2024 View on HN

Drone strikes against combatants aren't assassinations, and Obama is hardly the first President to engage armed force against someone the U.S. recognized as a citizen but who felt no personal loyalty to the U.S.

reducesuffering May 15, 2023 View on HN

Gonna need a source on US intentionally droning someone for their words.

colechristensen Mar 12, 2022 View on HN

The US has killed thousands of “militants” (and many people who were certainly innocent) with drone strikes in places where we’re not engaged in active conflict and without due process. It may or may not be wrong, case by case, certainly arguments to be made for both, but seems about the same motivation just further away than SA killing militants.

gadders Nov 6, 2025 View on HN

It's the same as if Obama sent a drone to kill people in a foreign country, no?

tehmillhouse Mar 15, 2016 View on HN

I'm sorry, but in a time where the US is killing people on the other side of the world using unmanned bomber drones based on just this international spying, I have a hard time believing that any of this should be "fair game".

PavlovsCat Jul 4, 2013 View on HN

No, murdered by sending out drones in random directions without any targeting info. These things and their programming just pop out of thin air, after all. And then they track just by scent, for weeks even.Or is this a reason to bring down the entire US?For someone in the third world who may have little to lose and becomes witness to such senseless slaughter? Maybe.But then again I'm not quite sure what you're even asking, maybe elaborate. Do you think maybe cutting dow

jonathanstrange Jul 19, 2018 View on HN

The process violates human rights. This is not war, since no war was declared, and even in times of war responses need to be adequate in particular with respect to the number of civilian casualties. It is illegal and unambiguously immoral to conduct political assassinations of suspect combatants without judicial oversight or giving them a right to defend themselves. Add to that the fact that practically every drone strike kills innocent civilian bystanders including children[1], and there is not