[Reason] Daniel Hale Revealed America's Drone Assassinations to the Public. Sentenced to 45 Months

Can't we blame this solely on Trump somehow? Think dammit think!

 

This is really what it comes down to. Do we as a country believe that there are enemies that can harm us? If so how do we deal with those enemies? I think most Americans would prefer drone strikes over using actual troops. Troops on the ground might be able to assess situations differently and have more options than a drone but that also puts troops on the ground in far more risk.

If Americans are uncomfortable with drone strikes they are far more uncomfortable with seeing caskets of US troops.

 

The argument against leaking this information is that it potentially exposes means, methods and resources for how intelligence is gathered and used. Releasing it could make it harder to use and collect that information and potentially put people who work with the US gathering intel or assisting in other ways in danger.

That last one actually is an issue for example the doctor that helped the US identify where Bin Ladin was ended up being jailed by Pakistan and in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and others people who are just suspected of helping the US have been killed.

 

I think another relevant question would be "are we causing people to hate us to the point where they want to harm us with our drone strikes".


A good example of this is the amount of extremist jihadists existed before the "War on Terror" and after it.

It's a self inflicting wound and it adds insult to injury of the reason for the self inflicting wound is increasing the return on investment for defense contractors and "creating jobs".

 

Yes that is the face value reasoning. We all know the primary reasoning is "don't want bad things that cause PR disasters to get leaked".

 

Does the answer need to be binary? It's more of a sliding scale and one where I like to think Americans should have more transparency in where we are around the world. I guess it feels better to sleep at night knowing our generals are ever vigilant. It also helps us divorce our country's actions from our choices in our interactions with foreigners ("We love Americans...but your country...").

I don't even remember offhand why Somalia became a hotspot to necessitate continuous drone strikes to be authorized in the first place, do you?

Then again, we're are still living through 20+ years of Afghanistan, still paying for college expenses (psst...I think she wants to be a doctor!!), and I don't think my argument for a more active citizenry that demands accountability has been working either...

 

Okay after reading the o.p. again

Extremist Jihadists really aren't a problem right now at least for us but not because of the war on terror.

In reality the decline in oil prices the last seven years have cut a lot of terrorist funding off.

Another fracking benefit and America's new found oil independence

 

A backlash is certainly a factor but that is why I was saying we shouldn't abstract war. I don't think though we can completely ignore that there are those who would and have done harm to the US and I doubt just ignoring them will necessarily mean that things will be fine.

There are times we need to act but there needs to be the understanding that any action likely will have repercussions beyond just the intended target.

 

There are ranges of responses regarding threats and certainly not every threat requires lethal force. I don't think we live in a world where lethal force is never needed.

 

Yes that is a reason a lot of time but it has happened where revealing means and methods has led to people who helped us being harmed. Again the situation with the doctor who helped identify where Bin Ladin was hiding.

 

Agreed. There might even be cases where publicizing said lethal and "justifiable" acts are unwise.

Doesn't mean it's an automatic 4 year sentence to whomever leaks them to the public