Killing children... Obama is catching up

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Optimists

Bush killed 112 children with his drone attacks, Obama has killed only 50 so far, but he's catching up... No money to save the poor or sick Americans though...


http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2011/08/the-children-the-cia-kills.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+andrewsullivan%2FrApM+%28The+Daily+Dish%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

The Children We Kill

A new report from the Bureau of Investigative Journalism reveals the profound moral costs of drone warfare, waged by the unacccountable CIA:

The highest number of child deaths occurred during the Bush presidency, with 112 children reportedly killed. More than a third of all Bush drone strikes appear to have resulted in the deaths of children.

On only one occasion during Bush's time in office did a single child die in a strike. Multiple deaths occurred every other time.  On July 28 2008 for example, CIA drones struck a seminary in South Waziristan, killing al Qaeda's chemical weapons expert Abu Khabab al Masri along with his team. Publicly the attack was hailed a success.

But the Agency's strike also killed three young boys and a woman. Despite the secrecy surrounding the drones campaign, details emerged in May of this year that not only was the US aware of this 'collateral damage', but that the then-CIA chief Michael Hayden personally apologised to Pakistan's Prime Minister Gilani for the error.

The Obama administration has also killed over 50 children, but seems to be trying to improve:

There are indications that the Obama administration is making efforts to reduce the number of children being killed. Following the incident in September 2010 that killed Din Mohammad's children, and another strike just weeks earlier in which a further three children died, there has been an apparent steep fall in the number of child fatalities reported by media.

That is partially in line with claims by some US intelligence officials that drone targeting strategies have been altered to reduce civilian casualties. Although the Bureau has demonstrated that CIA claims of 'zero casualties' are false, there are fewer reports of child casualties since August 2010.

(Photo: Syed Wali Shah Aged 7, killed in strike Ob32/Noor Behram.)

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