Reddit reviews Kill Chain: The Rise of the High-Tech Assassins
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in his book Kill Chain: The Rise Of The High-Tech Assassins, published two years ago, Andrew Cockburn describes how, if US surveillance suspects the presence of a "High Value Target" in a public place, regardless of restrictions on the number of innocents who can be murdered as "collateral damage," the Americans bomb the site and kill everyone there. He describes an instance where the US assassinated an underling of a "High Value Target" based on the mere assumption that the man would attend a funeral. The funeral was obliterated from the air though it was not known if the "High Value Target" was actually there. Every "military-age" male within the strike zone is automatically counted among the "hostile combatants."
They do these things knowing that innocent civilians will die; it is considered an acceptable, if unfortunate, price to pay.
That is, of course, not morally different from terrorists who explode suicide bombs in public places; considering the means justified by the ends.
Actually, the suicide bomber takes a risk infinitely greater than that of a drone pilot; and doesn't deserve the appellation of coward. Killing by robots, from a safe place several thousand miles away, is the very definition of cowardice.
America's wars are not only morally indefensible; they are the most cowardly in human history.
I read "The Kill Chain: The Rise of the High-Tech Assassins" by Andrew Cockburn a few months ago. It is, IMHO, the best book about the drone war in general and a lot of details about the evolution of the US - Terrorist international confrontation in particular.
One thing that Cockburn makes clear is that assassinating leaders in these jihadi groups tend to radicalize the movements by replacing older, more cautious men with young firebrands, therefore it is not surprising that the assassination of 120 Islamic State leaders has not done anything to slow down the expansion and radicalization of the Islamic State.
US just follows a protocol - here it is (Second Iraq War) if collateral damage was less then 30 civilians field commanders can authorize a a strike. If it was more then 30 it had to go to Rumsfield and then he authorized a strike. So it's all legal u'know.
/S
Source - http://www.amazon.com/Kill-Chain-Rise-High-Tech-Assassins/dp/0805099263