The Post's three parts series about the "permanent war", the institutionalization of the assassinations by drones, currently especially in Yemen, is largely election propaganda for the Obama administration: "Look how tough we are."
But to me it expresses something different. The people described in it, especially White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennen, are amoral ruthless servants of an ideology of almightiness that strives for global hegemony.
While they claim that their killing program is somehow reducing the risks of attacks on the United States they must know, as it is obvious, that this is not the case:
[I]n many ways since the US started bombing there in December 2009, Yemen has been a laboratory for the US to try out different approaches in its war against al-Qaeda. But I'm not so sure the results are as positive as Brennan and many of the other anonymous officials quoted suggest.
To begin with, I'm not sure how Yemen can be viewed as a model – at least in the positive sense Brennan seems to indicate – when AQAP has tripled in size since the US started bombing.
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Additionally, I would argue that events from this spring – when an undercover agent came away with AQAP's latest underwear bomb – shows a couple of things: 1. despite the US bombing campaign in Yemen, which has been partially designed to keep AQAP on its heels so that it can't plot attacks against the US, the organization is still actively plotting and attempting to launch new attacks. 2. The more recruit AQAP gains the bigger of a talent pool it has upon which to draw.
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[W]hen the US has carried out at least 36 attacks this year in Yemen in an effort to kill 10-15 men something is wrong.
Mass assassinations by drones, as the U.S. practices in Pakistan and in Yemen, have in both countries increased antipathy towards the U.S. and the number of people willing to actively fight against it. Currently U.S. drones also create new enemies in east Libya:
Locals considered the drones they now hear buzzing overhead “a form of occupation,” he said, and Libyans would wage “jihad” to force them out.
Obama and Brennen must know of this effect of their assassination campaign.
There is another danger in this war by drones. They are complicated machines and the software they use, which will make drones increasingly autonomous, is faulty and will always be so. As someone who has worked developing and implementing information technology this doesn't surprise me at all:
In March 2011, a Predator parked at the camp started its engine without any human direction, even though the ignition had been turned off and the fuel lines closed. Technicians concluded that a software bug had infected the “brains” of the drone, but never pinpointed the problem.
Currently software is getting developed that automatically scans through drone reconnaissance videos to find the "signature" of "terrorist behavior". That guy is loading the trunk of his car? Now that might be a car bomb. The visual recognition software will pick that out and when further bits of circumstantial "evidence" gets added it may well recommend the assassination of that person in a "signature strike".
Aside from the incredible stupid believe in the existence of any "terrorist signature", how many bugs will such a software have? Would their users even be able to identify a software mistake? Would they find its cause? Of course not.
No one with any bit of moral left in them should argue for the "permanent war" the Obama administration is implementing here. What it really creates is a permanent growing number of enemies and certain blowbacks to come. Drone assassinations and harassing drone critics create more terrorism. They are a problem, not a solution. As the people in the White House are not all stupid the must know this and their motivation to wage a permanent war must be a different one than the one they claim.