"Suspected US drone strikes have killed three alleged al-Qaida operatives in Yemen’s south-western Bayda province, security and tribal officials said, the first such killings reported in the country since Donald Trump assumed the presidency on Friday."
(Here's a source for the Obama quote.)
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32 comments:
Thanks, Obama.
People are about to discover we are involved in a war in Yemen.
But sure, women around the world protested because Trump was inaugurated. Because American women not getting their birth control for free is the biggest problem facing the women in this world.
These drone strikes are small potatoes. Think how many people around the world have died due to the destabilization of the balance of power caused by Obama letting Iran start flexing its muscles and all of the other power changes caused by leading from behind.
Obama killed us softly with his song. He sang as if he knew me ...
Code Pink will be back.
ISIS has been buying drones from Amazon. It won't be small potatoes when they start using them around D.C.
What Obama did that was amazing was to kill Osama bin Laden after he had been dead for about a decade. Afterward, members of the SEAL team used to do the killing for this fake assassination turned up dead as well.
As for Trump being in charge of these latest drone killings, I find it hard to believe that he knew anything about the operation until he got his morning report.
"Hagar said...
ISIS has been buying drones from Amazon. It won't be small potatoes when they start using them around D.C."
Well here's hoping that they used the Althouse Amazon portal.
Anyone who didn't complain about this over the past 8 years must now reap what they sowed. Sown. Whatever.
If you don't trust the drone-killers in Trump's hands, think back to when you thought it was okay for Obama to use them unchecked, and how that was okay because you trusted Obama. Surely you could have imagined that one day we'd have a president who was not Obama?
>> It won't be small potatoes when they start using them around D.C.
"Bloody instructions, which being taught return to plague the inventor."
Slightly off topic, I'm amused by this from the father of one of the victims of one of the drone strikes:
Ali Abedrabbo Ahmed said his 17-year-old son was only a construction worker killed while he was going to work in a pickup truck with colleagues in 2014, an incident other witnesses corroborated in the video.
Norm MacDonald has it right (skip to 10:50)...
SHE'S A HOOKER!
What Obama did that was amazing was to kill Osama bin Laden after he had been dead for about a decade
I don't necessarily believe this, but I've always thought the choice to take no pictures and shove his body off the side of the boat was pretty weird.
Please people, also don't forget that Obama's people declared anybody killed by a drone strike a military target, therefore keeping their hits on civilians to a nice clean zero.
Lovely man, that Obama. I miss him...but I'm not even aiming.
Bob Boyd: will be back? Code Pink disrupted several Trump cabinet appointee hearings already! They're heee-ere!
Holy hell, I don't know why I just thought if it, but President Trump has a built in out for any scandal or bad news! "I just read about X in the paper today, like the rest of you." Say it deadpan, then express concern and promise to get to the bottom of it. What the hell can the Media say, having accepted that excuse from Pres Obama over and over again?!
(Might not work, though, since some intelligence agency will 100% leak news that the info was included in some briefing at some point...still, I would laugh out loud if Trump just gave all of Obama's lame excuses verbatim and dated the Media to pounce.)
The Left assured me that the 9/11 terrorist attacks were "chickens coming home to roost" and were caused by the US's actions.
The principle objection Bin Laden spoke about (early on anyway) was that the US stationed troops on Islam's holy land, in Saudi Arabia (and that we allied with Saudis).
For the last free years we have been materially supporting the Saudis as they've pretty brutally gone after the Houthis. The Left always talked about how our being involved in killing civilians "creates more terrorists" but no one has much objected to our participation in this fight, which has involved pretty widespread civilian casualties. Further, the Houthis are backed by both the Iranians and Hezbollah...both groups Obama's admin was more friendly towards.
Obamas muddle of a policy in the Mideast (weak and apologetic while nevertheless being actively involved, in a way exposing the US to blame, in multiple conflicts) surely set some chickens free. Will anyone acknowledge his responsibility if any come a-roostin'?
No, of course not. We were actively engaged (killin' folks) in 7 counties at the end of President Peace Prize's administration. What Media coverage did that get? Yeah.
Except he didn't target any Islamic state figures till
2014, rather in Iraq or other regions like west Africa,
But sure, women around the world protested because Trump was inaugurated. Because American women not getting their birth control for free is the biggest problem facing the women in this world.
I loved one woman demanding that men pay for razors if they have to pay for tampons.
Do women think men get razors for free?
Whereas Cair's Linda sarsours and the splc supported the fake women's march
They struck a few stragglers like said Al shehri, who had been released from gitmo thanks to the levick crew , a very expensive exercise in catch and release.
.damikesc said... [hush][hide comment]
But sure, women around the world protested because Trump was inaugurated. Because American women not getting their birth control for free is the biggest problem facing the women in this world.
I loved one woman demanding that men pay for razors if they have to pay for tampons.
Do women think men get razors for free?
When I saw that sign, I assumed a man was carrying it, saying, if women want free tampons, men want free razors.
Al shehri was released because he alleged he had been tortured akin to the way James bond was in casino royale, he was released and after a period of art therapy moved up to the leadership of AqaP, planned the underwear bombing plot
Now be prepared for the press to discover that drone strikes blow up not only terrorists, but the civilians at weddings, markets, etc the terrorists use for human shields when they gather for meetings. Expect the sort of horror stories in the western press that the Islamic press has been carrying for many years now. Horrible tales of women & children blown to pieces, widespread maiming of the civilians who were collateral damage, etc.
And, of course, this will all be on Trump. Not a word that Obama did the same thing for years. Not a word.
"These drone strikes are small potatoes. Think how many people around the world have died due to the destabilization of the balance of power caused by Obama letting Iran start flexing its muscles and all of the other power changes caused by leading from behind."
Think how many people in the middle east have died due to America's demolition of the government in Iraq, as well as by your direct violent action by missiles, drones, and troops on the ground throughout the region. Obama is part of that, but it preceded him in office.
I suspect (for some reason) that there will be much, much more interest on these drone strikes than before, and not in a rah-rah we took out another ISIS.
I do not know why, just a funny feeling.
"Now be prepared for the press to discover that drone strikes blow up not only terrorists, but the civilians at weddings, markets, etc the terrorists use for human shields when they gather for meetings. Expect the sort of horror stories in the western press that the Islamic press has been carrying for many years now. Horrible tales of women & children blown to pieces, widespread maiming of the civilians who were collateral damage, etc."
Of course, left critics of Obama have been saying this throughout the whole of Obama's time in the White House.
Most of the Islamic stAte leadership were top officials in Hussein's regime (re Kyle Morton)
@Cookie,
left critics of Obama have been saying this throughout the whole of Obama's time in the White House.
Yes, I agree. But I don't want to the leave the impression that, like you, I think Obama is a "war criminal" for these drone strikes. Fighting a guerilla army that itself in no wise follows the Geneva Conventions makes morally dubious situations a common occurrence.
If the US refused to drone "high value targets" when they are surrounded by human shields, then every subsequent single meeting of those "high value targets" will be surrounded by human shields. It's a sad & ugly fact that, according to the laws of war, innocent human shields can be killed as "collateral damage" according to the rules of "proportionality".
I don't blame Obama for his droning, which I know you do. It's a morally dubious act in a war that the other side has worked hard to make morally dubious. I'm just ticked off because the Democrats were outraged under Bush II, lost that outrage under Obama, & will probably find it again under Trump.
I know that you not how you see it.
"Fighting a guerilla army that itself in no wise follows the Geneva Conventions makes morally dubious situations a common occurrence."
The problem, of course, is, who are the people we're bombing via drones? Terrorists? How do we know? Because the government says so? That's not good enough. We've heard distressingly common reports of wedding parties and funeral parties being struck by our drone bombs. For expediency, we define all "soldier-age" males in certain areas as suspected terrorists.
In Vietnam, we infamously defined anyone we killed as being VC, though many were just hapless villagers who happened to be in the wrong place, (their own neighborhoods or homes) at the wrong time, (when American forces let the full force of our military power loose on them).
Obama is a war criminal, as was Bush, as was Clinton, as has been virtually every American president going back decades.
In Vietnam, we infamously defined anyone we killed as being VC, though many were just hapless villagers who happened to be in the wrong place, (their own neighborhoods or homes) at the wrong time, (when American forces let the full force of our military power loose on them).
Cookie is channeling Kerry in 1972.
Guerrilla wars are like that. The British tried to teach us the lessons they learned in Malaya but there they had the advantage that the guerrillas were mostly Chinese and not Malays. Bing West and David Hackworth tried to tell the Army how to fight them but they Army was still in WWII mode and DePuy ruled the tactical game.
Could we have prevailed in Vietnam?
Probably not. Although the great errors were made by civilians who were far too controlling.
"Could we have prevailed in Vietnam?
We never should have gone into Vietnam.
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