Weaponized Drones 2-23-2015

23, February 2015                Weaponized Drones 

It is a matter of great concern to learn that the Obama’s administration intends to sell US made - weaponized drones to foreign allies. Under the new policy American firms will be able to sell drones under “proper use” guidelines which are “classified”. Such fuzzy language is subject to enormous abuse. For example, what would stop such allies using drones for extrajudicial killings? Would these remote killing machines be used to neutralize ‘enemies of the State’ in countries like Bahrain and Saudi Arabia?

There is little doubt that the controversial policy stems partially out of U.S. military corporations desire to tap into the $6 billion global arms market.

William Hurting of the Center for International Policy called the drone exports "one of the Obama administration’s worst policy decisions," adding: "regardless of what guidelines are established for their use, history tells us that once the United States transfers a weapon to another nation it is extremely difficult to control how it is used. The U.S. should be reining in its own drone strikes, not making it easier for other nations to use them." The administration appears to have forgotten the inherent dangers supplying weapons to weak allies such as the Iraqi military. In October 2014, ISIS fighters overran the Iraqi military capturing a huge cache of US weapons. Other US airdrops meant for the Iraqi Kurds were ‘accidentally’ airdropped into a territory controlled by ISIS.