America dropped 26,171 bombs in 2016. What a bloody end to Obama's reign
Medea Benjamin
According to new figures, the US dropped nearly three bombs every hour, 24 hours a day. Dare we think how Donald Trump will continue this legacy?
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jan/09/america-dropped-26171-bombs-2016-obama-legacy
Most Americans would probably be astounded to realize that the president who has been painted by Washington pundits as a reluctant warrior has actually been a hawk. The Iran nuclear deal, a herculean achievement, and the opening of diplomatic relations with Cuba unfortunately stand alone as President Obama’s successful uses of diplomacy over hostility.
While candidate Obama came to office pledging to end George W Bush’s wars, he leaves office having been at war longer than any president in US history. He is also the only president to serve two complete terms with the nation at war.
President Obama did reduce the number of US soldiers fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, but he dramatically expanded the air wars and the use of special operations forces around the globe. In 2016, US special operators could be found in 70% of the world’s nations, 138 countries – a staggering jump of 130% since the days of the Bush administration.
Looking back at President Obama’s legacy, the Council on Foreign Relation’s Micah Zenko added up the defense department’s data on airstrikes and made a startling revelation: in 2016 alone, the Obama administration dropped at least 26,171 bombs. This means that every day last year, the US military blasted combatants or civilians overseas with 72 bombs; that’s three bombs every hour, 24 hours a day.
While most of these air attacks were in Syria and Iraq, US bombs also rained down on people in Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan. That’s seven majority-Muslim countries.
One bombing technique that President Obama championed is drone strikes. As drone-warrior-in-chief, he spread the use of drones outside the declared battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq, mainly to Pakistan and Yemen. Obama authorized over 10 times more drone strikes than George W Bush, and automatically painted all males of military age in these regions as combatants, making them fair game for remote controlled killing.
President Obama has claimed that his overseas military adventures are legal under the 2001 and 2003 authorizations for the use of military force passed by Congress to go after al-Qaida. But today’s wars have little or nothing to do with those who attacked the United States on September 11, 2001.
The twisted legal architecture the Obama administration has constructed to justify its interventions, especially extrajudicial drone killings with no geographic restrictions, will now be transferred into the erratic hands of Donald Trump.
What does the administration have to show for eight years of fighting on so many fronts? Terrorism has spread, no wars have been “won” and the Middle East is consumed by more chaos and divisions than when candidate Barack Obama declared his opposition to the invasion of Iraq.
While the switch from US troops on the ground to airstrikes and special forces has saved US lives, untold numbers of foreign lives have been snuffed out. We have no idea how many civilians have been killed in the massive bombings in Iraq and Syria, where the US military is often pursuing Isis in the middle of urban neighborhoods. We only sporadically hear about civilian killings in Afghanistan, such as the tragic bombing of the Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz that left 42 dead and 37 wounded.
Pushed to release information about civilian deaths in drone strikes, in July 2016 the US government made the absurd claim it had killed, at most, 116 civilians in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and Libya between 2009 and 2015. Journalists and human rights advocates said the numbers were ridiculously low and unverifiable, given that no names, dates, locations or others details were released. The London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism, which has tracked drone strikes for years, said the true figure was six times higher.
Given that drones account for only a small portion of the munitions dropped in the past eight years, the numbers of civilians killed by Obama’s bombs could be in the thousands. But we can’t know for sure as the administration, and the mainstream media, has been virtually silent about the civilian toll of the administration’s failed interventions.
In May 2013, I interrupted President Obama during his foreign policy address at the National Defense University. I had just returned from visiting the families of innocent people killed by US drone attacks in Yemen and Pakistan, including the Rehman children who saw their grandmother blown to bits while in the field picking okra.
Speaking out on behalf of grieving families whose losses have never been acknowledged by the US government, I asked President Obama to apologize to them. As I was being dragged out, President Obama said: “The voice of that woman is worth paying attention to.”
Too bad he never did.
Map shows where President Barack Obama dropped his 20,000 bombs
Outgoing US leader carries out 3,000 more strikes in 2016 than year before
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-president-barack-obama-bomb-map-drone-wars-strikes-20000-pakistan-middle-east-afghanistan-a7534851.html
Incoming US President Donald Trump has said he will wage war on Isis, vowing to "bomb the s*** out of 'em".
And as the world gears up for a seemingly more violent four years, it is worth reflecting on President Obama's tenure
According to newly released figures, President Obama had already upped the number of bombs on foreign countries.
US forces dropped over 3,000 more bombs in 2016 than 2015, taking the grand total of strikes for the year to at least 26,171.
This map by Statista shows you where they were:
While President Obama reduced the number of US soldiers fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, air-strikes proliferated under his leadership.
He expanded the use of unmanned air-strikes outside the confines of war-zones in Afghanistan and Iraq to countries including Pakistan and Yemen.
In the wake of Mr Trump's win, the value of arms companies soared. He has promised extravagant military parades through America's cities and, like many Republicans, vowed to build up the US military.
The figures are likely to be an underestimate, since the only reliable data only comes from a handful of countries, and multiple bombs can be classed as a single “strike” under the Pentagon's definition.
But of the confirmed bombings, the vast majority (24,287) took place in Iraq and Syria, according to analysis of official data by Micah Zenko, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
His research concluded that the US dropped 79 per cent of all 30,743 coalition bombs in 2016.
Yet Democrat Mr Obama leaves the White House having authorised ten times more drone strikes than George W Bush and having been at war for longer than any President in US history.
'Peace' President? How Obama came to bomb seven countries in six years
US has engaged in conflict in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen, Libya and now Syria
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/peace-president-how-obama-came-to-bomb-seven-countries-in-six-years-9753131.html
Barack Obama, the man many hoped would be the 'peace President' when he was elected, has bombed seven countries during his six years in office.
The US President oversaw the first US air strikes launched in Syria this week, in a huge escalation of America’s military campaign against Isis (also known as Islamic State).
Mr Obama was elected in 2009 partly of his opposition to the Iraq war and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize after he assumed office.
The arguably optimistic decision taken by the Norwegian Nobel Committee was taken just nine months into his Presidency and came as he was trying to manage the war in Afghanistan.
His famous 'A New Beginning' speech in Cairo saw the President declare he was seeking a fresh start "between the United States and Muslims around the world", increasing hopes he would be the antidote to George W. Bush's controversial term.
Almost six years later, Mr Obama has approved military operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen, Libya and now Syria.
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (BIJ) estimates the Obama administration has launched more than 390 drone strikes in five years across Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia – eight times as many approved during the entire Bush Presidency.
Afghanistan
Mr Obama was at the forefront of a major withdrawal of troops in Afghanistan following America's ten-year conflict with the Taliban, which is due to finish at the end of 2014.
But in August, Afghan officials said an air strike by the American-led coalition killed at least four civilians, including two women.
Recently, Afghan President Hamid Karzai used his farewell speech to rally against US strikes one last time.
Mr Karzai, the only president Afghanistan had had since the US-led invasion in 2001, said Washington had wanted war in Afghanistan “because of its own interests”.
"The war in Afghanistan is to the benefit of foreigners," he said in his address. "But Afghans on both sides are the sacrificial lambs and victims."
Yemen
Drone strikes have had some success in tackling al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), with both the Pentagon and CIA operating drones over the country - at the expensive of civilian life.
Last year, Human Rights Watch released a 102-page report on US drone attacks and air strikes in Yemen against al- Qaeda militants which found six air strikes had killed 82 people - at least 57 of them civilians - between 2009 and 2013.
In April 2014, an intensive bombing campaign carried out jointly by US drones and Yemeni government forces left a reported 68 people dead, three of them believed to be civilians.
Pakistan
The US has targeted al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters in controversial drone “precision strikes” in Pakistan’s tribal areas for over a decade.
Mr Obama first admitted their use in 2012, saying: “For the most part, they’ve been very precise precision strikes against al-Qaeda and their affiliates, and we’re very careful in terms of how it’s been applied.”
But while the US claim strikes are an important tool for defeating anti-American targets, many in Pakistan say they undermine the country’s sovereignty and often hit innocent civilians.
The BIJ says that since Mr Obama's inauguration in 2009, the CIA has launched 330 strikes on Pakistan. In comparison, his predecessor Mr Bush conducted 51 strikes in four years.
Somalia
Mr Obama unveiled his “degrade and destroy” strategy against Isis on the anniversary of the 9/11 bombings. As he vowed to take out militants “wherever they exist”, he assured the conference: “This strategy of taking out terrorists who threaten us, while supporting partners on the front lines, is one that we have successfully pursued in Yemen and Somalia for years.”
The US has carried out several air strikes in Somalia recent years, killing a high-ranking al-Shabaab intelligence officer and its top explosives expert last year.
Libya
In 2011, a multi-state coalition was created in response to the Libyan civil war that saw American and British naval forces firing over 110 Tomahawk cruise missiles on Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's air defences.
President Obama was forced to defend his decision to intervene in the Libya conflict with air strikes after being accused of not properly consulting Congress.
Iraq
On 10 September this year and after ending the US combat presence in Iraq, Mr Obama became the fourth US President in a row to announce air strikes in the country in a televised address. As he made this announcement, the President warned: “I will not hesitate to take action against Isil in Syria as well as Iraq”.
The air strikes came at the request of the Iraqi government, which was struggling to battle Isis militants advancing across swathes of the country.
Syria
Then, on the 22 September, the President lived up to his warning and the Pentagon announced the US had launched air strikes on the Isis stronghold Raqqa and on the Khorasan Group in Aleppo.
The Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm John Kirby said fighter jets, bombers and Tomahawk cruise missiles were fired from ships in the region during the strikes.
In a statement, the US military said it had "destroyed or damaged multiple (Isis) targets" around the cities of Raqqa, Deir al-Zor, Hasakah and the border town of Albu Kamal.
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