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."
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.
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
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.