Looking at the case study of Pakistan specifically, the drone usage by Bush pales in comparison to his successor. In part, this was due to technological constraints of the time. Under the Bush administration, drones were not commonly utilized until 2008. It is important to note that the Bush administration is absent from this article. After analyzing each administration’s history and policy on drone strikes, I will recommend solutions that could minimize civilian casualties in the future. These specific administrations had high levels of military involvement in the Middle East, including the common use of drone strikes. This paper looks at the civilian death toll resulting from drone strikes across the Obama, Trump, and Biden administrations. Only under the Biden administration have we seen a reduction in drone strikes’ harm to civilians. Beginning in the early 2000s, the number of civilian casualties by drone strikes continued to climb. It is estimated that civilian casualties due to drone strikes are in the low thousands. Ever since the US engaged in regime change in both Afghanistan and Iraq, local reporting in the region has documented various instances of civilian casualties due to drone strikes. While drones have been extolled by elected officials for their alleged precision and accuracy, there are questions regarding the civilian impact of drones. In October 2021, a US-led drone strike in Syria killed senior al-Qaeda leader Abdul Hamid al-Matar. During the Kosovo conflict in the 1990s, NATO used drones for intelligence-gathering and surveillance over the Balkans. Drones have been utilized for many goals. ![]() ![]() First envisioned as early as the 19th century, when Austrians used hot air balloons to bomb Venice, it was not until 2000 that the CIA was able to successfully fit a missile onto a drone. One of the responses used was, and still is, drone warfare. America’s War on Terror required a wide variety of strategies to combat international terrorism. In the wake of the tragic attacks on September 11th, the United States began a campaign to find and punish those responsible for the terrorist attacks. US Drone Warfare and Civilian Casualties: A Comparison of the Obama, Trump, and Biden Administrations
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