The grossly misnamed UN Human Rights Council is launching a 9-month investigation into whether anti-terror drone strikes have led to “a plausible allegation of unlawful killings.”
Given the characters involved, this sounds less like an impartial investigation and more like a grand jury readying a criminal indictment.
And given that the probe focuses on the use of drones in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen as well as the West Bank and Gaza, it’s fair to say that the defendants here are the US, Britain and Israel.
So let’s just note at the outset that drone strikes are effective. They have significantly weakened the terrorists, and they have helped countries fighting the terrorists meet the primary responsibility of any nation: protecting its citizens.
Granted, civilians have been killed by drone strikes. But there would be many more dead civilians if the United States and its allies were to launch major ground operations instead. And innocents wouldn’t have to die if the terrorists were not so cynically using them as protective shelter.