The drone war escalated dramatically under Trump across new countries
Evidence
Medea Benjamin demonstrates that in 2000 the Pentagon had fewer than fifty aerial drones, but by 2010 possessed nearly 7,500. … As a candidate, Trump famously promised to kill not only those accused of terrorism but their families as well. The racist dehumanization was extended beyond “combatants” or military age men the Obama administration saw fit to kill to include their families as well. In power, Trump dramatically expanded the theater of operations from Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria to Yemen, Pakistan, and Somalia. In just his first two years in office, he launched more strikes in each of these countries than Obama had. He staged 238 strikes in Yemen, Somalia, and Pakistan, more than Obama’s 186 over a similar period. He carried out 176 attacks in Yemen in just two years, dwarfing Obama’s total of 154 strikes in Yemen in eight years. … The total civilian casualty rate of these attacks is not known, because the Trump administration placed restrictions on the reporting of these figures. The corporate media have reported on some of the worst examples, like the bombing of a wedding party in Yemen that killed twenty people and wounded dozens of others, including the groom. … The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, which has tracked the drone wars in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, and Somalia from 2010 to 2020, reports that there were 14,000 strikes, killing between 8,000 and 9,000 people. Among those were as many as 2,000 civilians and close to 500 children. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 519
Categorization
- ADDENDUM: Supplies concrete comparative numbers (Trump vs Obama strike totals, casualties) that sharpen the imperial-violence claim against the war-on-terror paradigm.
- XREF: connects to: Trump escalated drone strikes beyond Obama’s totals across expanded theaters. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 519; US public support for drone strikes reversed sharply outside the United States — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 508; US drone warfare began under Clinton and escalated through Obama to Trump. (+2 more)
Broader Connections
- Trump’s drone strike escalation outpaced Obama across every theater.
#expands(0.85) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 531 - Despite anti-war campaign rhetoric, Trump expanded Obama’s war on terror in the region
#corroborates(0.80) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 522 - US drone warfare began under Clinton and escalated through Obama to Trump.
#corroborates(0.75)