Tuesday March 19th, 2024
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Yes We Can Kill

President Obama allegedly states that he's pretty good at killing, according to a new, tell-all book by US journalists, chronicling the 2012 US elections.

Staff Writer

2009 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Barack Obama believes he's “really good at killing people.” This explosive claim is according to a new book entitled Double Down in which journalists Mark Halperin and John Heilemann chronicle the 2012 US presidential election.

Obama apparently made the claim while discussing drone strikes which have dramatically surged under his presidency. Since his first election to office, Obama has approved 326 drone strikes in Pakistan, 93 in Yemen, several in Somalia and Libya, as well as a surge of strikes in Afghanistan. Comparably, George Bush only approved 52 under his reign.

Under the Obama administration, a Joint Special Operations Command operative told Jeremy Scahill that operations had become “harder, faster, quicker – with the full support of the White House.” With his blind support, the military has indeed been more effective at killing, as they brought down Osama bin Laden and other Al-Qaeda officials, as well as many Pakistani Taliban leaders.

What's even more disturbing are the operating procedures which have resulted in many innocent civilians being killed by drones. The “Signature strikes” tactic targets anyone who shows patterns of suspicious behaviours and counts any military-age males in strike zones as combatants. If that wasn't bad enough, another disturbing tactic is that of the “double tap” which is the bombing the same place, several times, in quick succession, once first responders arrive on the scene.

We are pretty sure this wasn't the change the American people were thinking of when they agreed to the Yes We Can campaign but, at the very least, they look less foolish than the Nobel Peace Prize committee.