{"id":48477,"date":"2014-10-13T12:00:48","date_gmt":"2014-10-13T11:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=48477"},"modified":"2015-05-05T21:29:39","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T20:29:39","slug":"for-airstrikes-on-the-islamic-state-u-s-relaxing-drone-strikes-burden-of-proof","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2014\/10\/for-airstrikes-on-the-islamic-state-u-s-relaxing-drone-strikes-burden-of-proof\/","title":{"rendered":"For Airstrikes on the Islamic State, U.S. Relaxing Drone Strikes\u2019 Burden of Proof"},"content":{"rendered":"

The standards the U.S. purportedly used to prevent civilian deaths from drone strikes have been relaxed for airstrikes in Syria and Iraq.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Predator<\/a>

Predator drone<\/p><\/div>\n

If you\u2019re appalled at civilian deaths due to U.S. drone strikes in Afghanistan and Pakistan, prepare to be aghast at civilian deaths due to U.S. airstrikes in Syria and Iraq. Michael Isikoff for the Associated Press<\/a> wrote:<\/p>\n

The White House has acknowledged\u00a0for the first time\u00a0that strict standards President Obama imposed last year to prevent civilian deaths from U.S. drone strikes will not apply to U.S. military operations in Syria and Iraq.<\/p>\n

A White House statement to Yahoo News confirming the looser policy came in response to questions about reports that as many as a dozen civilians, including women and young children, were killed when a Tomahawk missile struck the village of Kafr Daryan in Syria\u2019s Idlib province on the morning of Sept. 23.<\/p>\n

Caitlin Hayden, a spokesperson for the National Security Council,\u00a0said<\/p>\n

\u2026 that a much-publicized White House policy that President Obama announced last year barring U.S. drone strikes unless there is a \u201cnear certainty\u201d there will be no civilian casualties \u2014 \u201cthe highest standard we can meet,\u201d he said at the time \u2014 does not cover the current U.S. airstrikes in Syria and Iraq.<\/p>\n

The \u201cnear certainty\u201d standard was intended to apply \u201conly when we take direct action \u2018outside areas of active hostilities,\u2019 as we noted at the time,\u201d Hayden said in an email. \u201cThat description \u2014 outside areas of active hostilities \u2014 simply does not fit what we are seeing on the ground in Iraq and Syria right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hayden added that U.S. military operations against the Islamic State (also known as ISIS or ISIL) in Syria, \u201clike all U.S. military operations, are being conducted consistently with the laws of armed conflict, proportionality and distinction.\u201d With targets such as Islamic State training areas, command and control centers, and storage facilities, Ms. Hayden seems to be describing what\u2019s traditionally known as precision bombing, in which civilians are not expressly targeted, but, nonetheless, killed.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, writes Isikoff,<\/p>\n

\u2026 one former Obama administration official said the new White House statement raises questions about how the U.S. intends to proceed in the conflict in Syria and Iraq, and under what legal authorities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey seem to be creating this grey zone\u201d for the conflict, said Harold Koh, who served as the State Department\u2019s top lawyer during President Obama\u2019s first term. \u201cIf we\u2019re not applying the strict rules [to prevent civilian casualties] to Syria and Iraq, then they are of relatively limited value.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not sure if I\u2019m following Koh, but I interpret his statement as meaning that, in this case, each civilian killed in an airstrike has the potential to create \u2015 Sorcerer\u2019s Apprentice style \u2015 many more.<\/p>\n

At Common Dreams, Sarah Lazare<\/a> adds:.<\/p>\n

What is clear, say critics, is that the rolling back of these limited reforms with regard to Iraq and Syria will be certain to risk the killing of ordinary people already under siege by ISIS.<\/p>\n

Ms. Lazare\u00a0quotes Robert Naiman of Just Foreign Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are going back to the pre-reform policy in Pakistan and Yemen. \u2026 Why are they doing that? They are sending a message in the ISIS controlled area: \u2018Screw you.\u2019 They are saying, \u2018We have a list of bad guys, and that\u2019s who we\u2019re trying to kill. If you don\u2019t want to die, get away from our target.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Guilt by association, or, in this case, just proximity, isn\u2019t a viable concept when the families of Islamic State fighters and command have nowhere else to go \u2014 or aren\u2019t allowed to leave.<\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 fpif.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The standards the U.S. purportedly used to prevent civilian deaths from drone strikes have been relaxed. If you\u2019re appalled at civilian deaths from U.S. drones in Afghanistan and Pakistan, prepare to be aghast at civilian deaths due to U.S. airstrikes in Syria and Iraq.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-militarism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48477"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48477\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}