Contesting the new military strategy in Afghanistan
(Here's a short essay i wrote for a law school application I thought some people might find interesting!) The increased use of drones for counterterrorism in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and now Yemen, by the American military and intelligence service has stirred a great debate. Proponents argue that drones protect American soldiers, minimize civilian casualties through advanced surveillance and precision capabilities, and are the most effective weapon against AlQaeda. Due to these supposed merits, drones are now increasingly used in a controversial new strategy: targeted killings of high-level insurgents. In the emerging debate around drones, it is this strategy, and not the weapon itself, that must be scrutinized. Targeted killings are strategically and legally problematic. The presumption that targeted killings contain damage to civilians is contestable: civilians continue to die in these attacks and many experts correlate increased targeted k...