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There have been zero reported civilian casualties from US drone strikes since Joe Biden took office - Business Insider

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It's a dark rite of passage for new, post-9/11 US presidents: Usually, within the first weekend, the fresh commander-in-chief, having inherited a global war on terror, orders the military or an intelligence agency to end someone's life with an airstrike. To adversaries, it demonstrates resolve; to allies as well as critics, it demonstrates that there will be continuity, no matter which party controls the White House.

President Joe Biden, it appears, has been different. Under his watch, there has been just one declared US airstrike: a February 9 attack in Iraq that, the military claims, "resulted in the deaths of two Daesh terrorists."
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And in stark contrast to his immediate predecessors, there have been no immediate reports of civilian casualties — this, following months of escalated US attacks, from Central Asia to Africa, during his predecessor's last couple months in office.

Clandestine operations, by their nature, cannot be ruled out. What we know for sure, though, is that "there have been zero local or official reports of US drone or other strikes in Somalia, Libya, Yemen, or Pakistan so far under Biden," Chris Woods, director of the monitoring group Airwars.org, told Insider.
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www.businessinsider.com

There have been zero reported US drone strikes since Joe Biden took office

The apparent lull — punctured by one US airstrike targeting ISIS in Iraq — is unusual for a new presidency.
www.businessinsider.com www.businessinsider.com

For comparison, President Obama ordered his first drone strike within 72 hours of taking office, and Trump oversaw his first drone strike on the day he was inaugurated. So far, no strikes under Biden. I was expecting a lot worse than this, so consider me pleasantly surprised. Let's see if they can keep it up.
 
Steel

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This is actually a dupe thread, but the last thread had about... 4 posts, so I don't see the problem.
 
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Steel said:
This is actually a dupe thread, but the last thread had about... 4 posts, so I don't see the problem.
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I didn't notice that. If mods want to merge the threads, they can. Thought this deserved more recognition because this topic had a lot of discourse in the past year.
 
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Peter Ian Staker said:
Give him time.
It hasn't been 100 days yet.
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Sure, but it's a meaningful comparison when Obama and Trump ordered drone strikes in their first days in office. Biden's been there for a month so far and no drone strikes yet. This makes me cautiously optimistic for the future, but again, it can change like you mentioned.

Squarehard said:
www.resetera.com

BusinessInsider: There have been no* reported drone strikes since Joe Biden took office

Threw in an asterisk because I didn't know how people would count the bolded, but: Doubt it stays that way throughout his entire presidency, but already a massive improvement over his predecessors: I feel like just about every U.S. president, good or bad (or "bad or less bad" depending on...
www.resetera.com www.resetera.com
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DiipuSurotu said:
www.resetera.com

BusinessInsider: There have been no* reported drone strikes since Joe Biden took office

Threw in an asterisk because I didn't know how people would count the bolded, but: Doubt it stays that way throughout his entire presidency, but already a massive improvement over his predecessors: I feel like just about every U.S. president, good or bad (or "bad or less bad" depending on...
www.resetera.com www.resetera.com
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I'll ask the mods to merge the threads.
 
TheGhost

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Probably just hasn't gotten around to it yet. People should keep expectations in check and not set themselves up for the inevitable disappointment.
 
Tremorah

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*yet

Im sure there will be several and just like the two previous presidents have done, there will be civilian casualties
 
Baji Boxer

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Glad to hear. Hopefully the number stays real low throughout. It's going to happen at some point, but getting out of Yemen will make a big difference.
 
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TheGhost said:
Probably just hasn't gotten around to it yet. People should keep expectations in check and not set themselves up for the inevitable disappointment.
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I mean, Trump was ramping up drone strikes before Biden took office. So, the difference indicates there's been a conscious effort to stop drone strikes for the time being. Does that mean there will be literally zero in Biden's first term? I doubt it, I'd be shocked. But it could mean there's 1% of the usual amount of drone strikes overall.

Randam said:
That there were more drone strikes under trump than under 8 years of Obama really shocked me.
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Why is that surprising?
 
Djalminha

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I never realized how frequent American drone strikes are. The article seems to imply people like Obama or Trump did this a few nights a week, just like we watch an episode of some show. Think of this from the perspective of the people from those countries: if there was an explosion in my neighborhood, I'd assume a gas pipe or something like that. In a dozen countries, you assume the Americans just decided to kill someone, often with disregard towards murdering civilians. It's just absolutely sickening, no wonder people become radicalized, I would too if someone just decided to drop a bomb near my home.
 
KAMI-SAMA

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Way too early to tell what his record will be. It's almost the equivalent of Republicans blaming Biden for not fixing the economy as soon as he took office.
 
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TheGhost said:
Or that he prioritizing a pandemic
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He literally took time to stop operations in Yemen, so it's not like he hasn't glanced in that direction on the EO side.
Djalminha said:
I never realized how frequent American drone strikes are. The article seems to imply people like Obama or Trump did this a few nights a week, just like we watch an episode of some show. Think of this from the perspective of the people from those countries: if there was an explosion in my neighborhood, I'd assume a gas pipe or something like that. In a dozen countries, you assume the Americans just decided to kill someone, often with disregard towards murdering civilians. It's just absolutely sickening, no wonder people become radicalized, I would too if someone just decided to drop a bomb near my home.
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For an idea of frequency and difference in frequency (Trump axed reports on drone strikes, so it's likely more on his end, also, the article only covers Trump's first two years of drone strikes):
We can cobble together some reporting on the numbers, but finding exact figures on drone strikes in the Trump administration is difficult. More on that in a minute.

According to a 2018 report in The Daily Beast, Obama launched 186 drone strikes in Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan during his first two years in office. In Trump's first two years, he launched 238.


The Trump administration has carried out 176 strikes in Yemen in just two years, compared with 154 there during all eight years of Obama's tenure, according to a count by The Associated Press and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism.

Experts also say drone strikes under President Trump have surged in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria.
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Under Donald Trump, drone strikes far exceed Obama's numbers (suntimes.com)
KAMI-SAMA said:
Way too early to tell what his record will be. It's almost the equivalent of Republicans blaming Biden for not fixing the economy as soon as he took office.
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I mean, it's too early to definitively tell how much strikes will be reduced or whether or not it'll literally be zero, but given the frequency under Trump and the pullout from Yemen there's 100% been a reduction.
 
Syranth

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Maybe because other countries have much worse to worry about then to screw around and provoke us to drone them?
 
Dr. Mario

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Reported, so who knows. For the longest time people thought Trump didn't do any either. Turned out they just stopped reporting them. It probably helps Biden isn't clearly picking sides like Trump with the Saudis and Turkey though.
 
Älg

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Let's not pretend that this is going to be a trend moving forward lmao. He's got plenty of time to become an imperialist war criminal, just like the rest of them.
 
Aaron

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Funny how "it's only been a month" works both for Biden supporters to explain why he hasn't gotten stimulus, healthcare, student loan debt forgiveness etc. yet and for Biden detractors to take issue with positive developments like his (currently nonexistent) drones record.
 
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