How the 'War on Terror' Inspired Terrorists to Follow America's Lead in Weaponizing Drones

[eridani]

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/36865-how-the-war-on-terror-inspired-terrorists-to-follow-americas-lead-in-weaponizing-drones

Experts fear that sinister actors may be obtaining the technology as well. In a report issued this January, the Oxford Research Group’s Remote Control Project, which analyzes developments in military technology, warned that the Islamic State “is reportedly obsessed with launching a synchronized multi-drone attack on large numbers of people in order to re-create the horrors of 9/11.” The report’s lead author has said, “Drones are a game-changer in the wrong hands.”

Are there any safe hands, though? The United States is the motivating force behind UAVs’ increasing sophistication and deadliness. Since taking office, President Barack Obama has attacked more countries than any president since World War II, launching drone strikes against at least seven nations and killing thousands of people, many of them innocent civilians. According to a February report by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, the Pentagon makes little effort to determine whom UAVs are slaying: “Just 10 of the scores killed by U.S. drones in Pakistan last year have so far been identified.”

It may be too late to stuff the drone genie back into the bottle. Yet the Obama administration has six months before leaving office to at least do some damage control. It could start by telling the truth—not just cautioning people about the dangers drones could pose when deployed by terrorists, but also admitting to the toll that unmanned weapons have exacted under U.S. command.

Anxiety about the Islamic State’s access to drones has increased over the past few years. In 2014, the group employed UAVs to shoot propaganda video of fierce fighting in Kobane, Syria. In March 2015, coalition forces said they witnessed the Islamic State using a drone for reconnaissance near Fallujah. Then, in December, Kurdish fighters shared pictures purporting to show the wreckage of UAVs; the Kurds claimed terrorists may have begun experimenting with explosives to weaponize drones.