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🚨 Let’s talk Barack Obama… the Drone Chief with zero congressional approval.
While the outrage machine stays locked on Trump twenty four hours a day, it is worth remembering the man many people still call “the good one.” Barack Obama built a reputation as the Drone President.
Obama did not just inherit the drone program. He massively expanded it. During his first term alone, he approved more than 500 drone strikes across Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia. That was roughly ten times more strikes than were carried out before he took office.
The White House insisted these strikes were surgical and precise. Officials repeatedly claimed there was near certainty that civilians would not be harmed before a strike was approved. However, when the administration released official figures in 2016, it admitted that between 64 and 116 civilians were killed in strikes outside declared war zones. Independent investigations, including those by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, estimated the real number was far higher. Some estimates placed the civilian death toll in the hundreds, with figures reaching close to 800 people, including women and children.
One of the most tragic incidents happened in January 2015. A CIA drone strike in Pakistan accidentally killed American aid worker Warren Weinstein and Italian hostage Giovanni Lo Porto, both being held by al Qaeda. Obama later appeared before the cameras, accepted responsibility, and publicly apologized for the deaths.
Obama personally reviewed and approved targets on a secret kill list. Former aides later recalled him saying, “Turns out I am really good at killing people.” Some strikes were launched using incomplete intelligence, and innocent people were sometimes killed after being mistaken for militant targets.
Obama’s drone program resulted in thousands of deaths and a significant civilian toll. It also normalized remote drone warfare with very little public accountability. The program expanded quietly while much of the media praised him and largely avoided serious scrutiny of the growing civilian casualties.
Meanwhile, despite constant criticism and nonstop outrage, Donald Trump took a different approach. Trump focused on defeating ISIS on the ground rather than relying heavily on remote strikes. Under Trump, ISIS lost its territorial caliphate, American strength was reasserted, and he pushed to bring troops home from long running conflicts.
The next time the internet explodes over Trump’s tweets or daily controversies, remember which president quietly expanded a global drone war that killed hundreds of civilians while being praised as the responsible one. Then remember which president focused on defeating America’s enemies and restoring strength instead of quietly expanding endless shadow warfare.
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