Since November 2002, when a CIA drone strike destroyed the SUV
of “al-Qaeda’s chief operative in Yemen,” Qaed Salim Sinan al-Harethi
(“U.S.
kills al-Qaeda suspects in Yemen”), it’s been almost 13 years
of unending repeat headlines. Here are a few recent ones: “U.S.
drone strike kills a senior Islamic State militant in Syria,” “Drone
kills ISIL operative linked to Benghazi,” “Drone
kills four Qaeda suspects in Yemen,” “U.S.
drone strike kills Yemen al-Qaida leader Nasir al-Wuhayshi,” “U.S.
drone strikes target Islamic State fighters along Afghanistan-Pakistan border.”
Those last strikes in Eastern Afghanistan reportedly killed 49 “militants.”
(Sometimes they are called “terror suspects.”) And there’s
no question that, from Somalia to Pakistan, Libya to Syria, Yemen to Iraq, various
al-Qaeda or Islamic State leaders and “lieutenants” have bitten
the dust along with significant numbers of terror grunts and hundreds
of the collaterally
damaged, including women and children.
These repetitive headlines should signal the kind of victory that Washington
would celebrate for years to come. A muscular American technology is knocking
off the enemy in significant numbers without a single casualty to us. Think
of it as a real-life version of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s heroic machine in certain
of the Terminator movies. If the programs that have launched hundreds
of drone strikes in the backlands of the planet over these years remain “covert,”
they have nonetheless been a point of pride for a White House that regularly
uses a “kill
list” to send robot
assassins into the field. From Washington’s point of view, its drone wars remain,
as a former CIA director once bragged,
“the only game in town” when it comes to al-Qaeda (and its affiliates,
wannabes, and competitors).