The world disapproves of drone strikes. So? Who cares?
Stars & Stripes reports that a Pew poll of twenty nations reveals that 17 of those nations disapprove of US drone strikes in Afghanistan;
Even long-time American allies like Britain, Germany and Japan have majorities that disapprove of the drone strikes, at 47, 59 and 75 percent, respectively.
The strike tactic is extremely unpopular in Muslim countries, where most of the bombings take place.
And this is important how? The targets of drone strikes (the Muslim countries) unsurprisingly don’t like having missiles fired at their goat-roping asses and the folks who don’t have much skin in the game don’t approve. Who even thought this poll was important enough to waste time on? I could have told them what the results would be before they made the first phone call, or smoke signal or whatever they used to get the opinions of these morons.
The U.S. was the only country with a positive percentage, at 62. More specifically, 74 percent of Republicans approve of the strikes, compared to 60 percent of independents and 58 percent of Democrats.
Since it’s our troops whose lives are being protected by this particular strategy, that’s the only part of the poll that matters. Who gives a tiny rat’s ass what Turkey or Egypt says?
And, oh, not that it matters much to me, but in the last election, we were told that if Obama were our president, the rest of the world would love him and respect us more as a result. Well, four years later, it seems that those same countries who want to see more American casualties don’t seem to like Obama as much as we were led to believe, according to that poll.
Like I said, I don’t particularly care how the rest of the world perceives us or our policies (we’re Americans and we’re supposed to have policies that benefit us and piss off the rest of the world – that’s kind of the purpose of a federalist government), but to those of you who are more enlightened than me, what with me not being a world citizen and all, it might be important.
Category: Barack Obama/Joe Biden, Terror War
What? The world doesn’t love O-bow-ma?
RACISTS!!!!
But I thought everybody was suposed to love us after Obama got elected?
File this under I don’t give a shit…
Nuts
I’m not concerned about uninformed global public reactions to our actions. I worry about those actions which can have secondary and tertiary negative effects, but these are not what is captured in meaninglessness polls.
I’m likewise unconcerned with what the Obama campaign and the left in general pontificated about in 2008. That’s was sort of their job. They were wrong.
Maybe we should reconfigure the switchblade drone to drop feces on target just prior to detonation, you know, to increase the disapproval rating. No one cares.
The rest of the world wouldn’t hate us any less if we’d been carpet bombing villages.
This is why we should never let international opinion keep us from doing what needs to be done.
I have a hard time seeing why people would dislike drone attacks (when they’re not the target) it’s win-win. The pilot is out of harms way and can launch precision attacks on the other side of the globe. Like #6 said, I’m sure the alternative bombing method wouldn’t rate too high on their polls… in fact I’m sure if we made our own poll and put it out worded like that we’d get a very favorable response to drone strikes.
Poll:
Carpet bomb villages housing insurgents (dust off those B-52s ;))?
Call in precision strikes using drones to minimize collateral damage?
Drones are a tool, just like an M4, M240B, M1, or B2. In the right hands, they are an effective and good tool to cull the world of terrorists. In the wrong hands, they create enemies, terrorists, & tyrants.
Likewise, I am NOT a “world citizen” and don’t give two s***s if our enemies dislike us. I don’t care about a popularity contest, BUT when we s*** on our friends, abandon our allies, and bow to our enemies, they begin to lose respect for our actions and trustworthyness.
And having broken the trust of allies, Veterans, and Troops, this Administration is creating the next set of wars by arrogantly ordering allied leaders around, including to abdicate their positions, and invading their sovereign airspace. It is ignoring the US Constitution by fighting drone wars without authority of Congress.
It is not difficult to see how this has played out, particularly in Pakistan, which launched a ground offensive against the Taliban in 2009, which was a reluctant ally from 2001 into 2009, but with the Admin’s arrogance in un”diplomacy” of Holbrooke, and Drone Wars, blocked the main supply routes into Afghanistan, severely increasing the financial costs of our operations, as well as putting many more American lives at risk.
Some may attempt to point to the ObL mission, but Paki complaints about that mission were rather hollow and they had been instrumental in the capture of several #3 and key level AQ leaders during the previous adminstration.
The same country that gave us secret bases to fight AQ in 2001-2008 is now working with Iran on pipelines and “counter-terrorism.”
Drones have a place in the arsenal, but NOTHING replaces the boots on the ground.
The relative world doesn’t like them because they “feel” it isn’t “fair” on multiple levels and that it should in fact cost us lives instead of removing them from the equation.
The predominatly Muslim countries hate them because they are damned effective, and Allah doesn’t apparently want many AK bullets to be guided up into the control mechanisms of Predators very much.
F them all.
They don’t have to like us or approve of our methods of death dealing. Linebacker and Linebacker II brought the North Vietnamese first to the negotiation table and then back to it after they walked away. I don’t give a rats ass if they approve or not simply because the way it should be is that if anyone thinks about attacking us, the full measure of our methods of destruction should be applied with swiftness and extreme violence so that the next guy finds it more favorable to his existence to negotiate rather than attacking us or our interests and become an ash heap. We don’t do that, anymore, and have only once since the end of WWII (Vietnam). As others have said; they’ll hate us no matter what we do, so let’s do it up right and come home. The problem is, no one has the intestinal fortitude, anymore, to really achieve victory.
@ redacted, it should be pig feces, and while the switchblade is throwing pigcrap it should toss pork base luncheon meat at the general area.
Re overall article, US policy is not supposed to be up for review and comment by countries who may one day be at odds with us… Their opinions should mean jack and sh*t, and jack should go on a vacation.
WHat!?! Muslim countries that harbor and breed terrorist don’t like our Drone strikes? No shit, really?
And we are concerned about this why?
I know, we should modify our Drones by putting on loudspeakers which blare out Allah Akbar!!! as they are killing the terrorists.
As for other countries who sit on the sidelines while Americans take care of business, yes we will listen and shake our heads positively. Then at the end of the day, we will take care of business with deadly precision.
Just my two cents…
Let’s see if I can put this succinctly, “Who gives a stinky rat’s @$$ what anyone else thinks!”
The US being liked by other countries is desirable, but is not essential.
The protection of US national interests is both essential and non-negotiable.
Drones are a useful tool for furthering US national interests.
Any questions?
In unrelated news, the Combined Bomber Offensive remains unpopular in Nazi Germany, the atomic bomb remains unpopular in Imperial Japan, Sherman’s March to the Sea remains unpopular in the CSA, and Kitchener’s camps remain unpopular in the Boer Republic. That is all.
No. 15 670Prig :
You are self-sufficient, but NOT irritating (except to hypocrites) — nice news report !!
Why do they care? If they’re not terrorists, they have nothing to be afraid of.
Let me see if I have this straight:
A- They (bad guys, enemy, etc.) do not like being shot at/bombed by drones
B- We (good guys, us, etc.) do this to protect our troops and save lives
C- It’s okay for bad guys to put 400 pounds of IED in a hole in the road while our guys are distracted for 1.5 hours, so that they can ambush our guys with AKs from the trees and blow up the JERRVs and Buffalos
D- It’s not okay for us to fire back, bomb them, or otherwise defends selves.
Oh!! I get it now.
Wait…no, I don’t get it.
Can someone ‘splain it to me?