A New Drone Playbook:

"Making America Great Again" at Muslims’ Expense

Rasa - President Donald Trump has granted the CIA broad powers to conduct lethal drone strikes in Syria and Yemen, as well as outside of war zones.

News ID: 428177

Date: 15 March 2017 - 22:18

RNA - This includes covert operations with the widely-adopted use of killer drones, without any intention to keep those potentially boundless war powers in check. This will be without approval or oversight from the United Nations – not that the previous ones did have such authority. Trump says, however, that the whole idea is “to make America great again” and “to win wars again”. To this end:

-The CIA doesn't have to report the number of terrorists or civilians it kills during a drone strike. The Pentagon doesn’t have to report it publicly. At the same time, the Trump administration is making changes to Presidential Policy Guidance, also known as the Drone Playbook. The new changes empower the Pentagon to make decisions on targets without approval from the White House and potentially scrap the standard of no civilian deaths for strikes outside war zones.

-The new scheme is permanent. It will expand unchecked war powers, including deployment of the use of military force and related national security operations. This is particularly dangerous for people living in Syria and Yemen, which the Trump administration has already declared "an area of active hostilities.” There is no such thing as absolute precision. It opens the door to new raids that will only kill more civilians. It can cause significant strategic setbacks; it will do nothing to stop ISIL, with stresses and fault lines that could easily lead to implosions across the entire Mideast region.

-The uncomfortable reality is that this policy is dumb. Chasing after a convenient enemy like ISIL in the Syrian and Yemeni deserts without a clear vision of the endgame or UN mandate could result in something far worse. It will be yet another dumb war of choice that neither the Trump administration nor the Pentagon regime are destined to win.

-For all the appearance, the Trump administration should not be applying war time rules in those places, as the concern is those rules will go by the wayside. Trump has thrown International Law directive out of the window. He is using these powers more aggressively and without accountability at Muslims’ expense.

-Trump's lack of firm drone policies is a confusing one, considering the fight against ISIL is still one of his strongest argument. With the fight against ISIL going badly, one would think he has something more tangible in his ISIL-fighting plans. Yet, at present, he doesn't. Perhaps this has propaganda value, but it will not change the fact that ISIL and Al-Qaeda militants are being defeated in both Iraq and Syria by the national armies of those countries and their immediate allies and not by America’s drone war and unchecked war powers.

-Trump can give the Pentagon time to come up with a comprehensive review of the fight against ISIL or direct the Pentagon to bring him a broad array of options that ignore the restrictions on troop numbers and civilian casualties. But he is wrong to assume he can achieve this goal, even by the announcement of a $54 billion increase in war spending. Given his behavior during the past few weeks in office, it seems reasonable to expect a more risk-acceptant ISIL strategy, and one that might involve a greater number of civilian casualties.

-The main goals of the unchecked war powers are threefold: The strategic defeat of ISIL, Al-Qaeda and groups affiliated with them, the containment of local conflicts so that they do not breed new enemies, and the preservation of the security of the American troops. Drones do not serve all these goals. Although they can protect the American troops from attacks in the short term, they are not helping to defeat ISIL and Al-Qaeda.

The bottom line is that it would be a mistake for Trump to embrace unchecked war powers and killer drones as the centerpiece of US policy against ISIL and Al-Qaeda. Lest he forgets, the idea of a “New American Century” is pretty much over. As most political scientists, geostrategists and international relations specialists can tell him, the new US administration won’t be able to achieve a dominant position in the world through having the largest military force or launching a new drone war.

In sum, the loss of US hegemony is an undeniable reality and Trump’s unequivocal rhetorical stances about “America First, Last and Only” can’t change that. Granting the CIA broad powers to conduct lethal drone strikes in Syria and Yemen, as well as outside of war zones is further weakened by Trump’s own inexperience, naiveté, bluster, inability to build effective coalitions, and misguided policies. It’s particularly made vulnerable by the fact that the Muslim world and the international civil society won’t sit on their hands. They will take advantage of Trump’s many weaknesses and take bold new steps to organize against his new war plans. They will fight back in every way possible.

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