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View Full Version : Legalities on the US use of drones internationally



RedBen
17th September 2013, 09:58
i wonder what the un, foreign leaders, ect have to say about it. i found an interesting article where a law professor seems to think it is illegal.
http://www.futurity.org/is-us-drone-policy-illegal-and-ill-advised/

WASHINGTON U. ST. LOUIS (US) Targeted killing by unmanned planes may violate international humanitarian law, a legal expert argues in a recent report.

Leila Sadat, a law professor at Washington University in St. Louis, also questions whether it promotes US interests abroad.

Drone strikes have become a major part of US military strategy and counterterror operations, but Sadat writes in an article published in the Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law that the US use of drones raises several troubling legal questions: What is the legal foundation for government use of lethal force and whether drone strikes are considered acts of aggression against other countries?

She finds that the Obama administration largely continued the policy and legal rationale of former President George W. Bush regarding drones.

The US argues there are no geographical constraints in the war on terror, Sadat writes, but adds that most authorities reject that idea.

The process used by the executive branch to determine who and when to target human beings for death can be summarized in two words: trust us, she writes.

But while she believes the administration is cautious, mistakes still can occur and innocent civilians get killed, raising legal, political and diplomatic worries for the US.

Some of these mistakes end up as YouTube videos . . . which serve as recruitment devices for al-Qaeda and its associates, and fuel anti-American sentiment in areas where drones are operating, Sadat notes.
has anyone read about anything similar coming from a foreign leader? has anyone challenged this on the world stage? if other countries did this to us, we'd invade them.

Flying Purple People Eater
17th September 2013, 13:20
The US has been renowned for doing this as an act of provocation for countries which are at odds with it's government. The whole fiasco a few months ago with North Korea closing relations with the South was basically a response to US aircraft flying close to (crossing?) the border.

Thing is, even if it is technically illegal, I find it highly likely that it would A) change the current situation in any way or B) Provoke some debate between America and the countries it wants to invade. The UN always ends up an American puppet during matters like this anyway.