Also, if you read the NYT article carefully, the principal reason that they give that moving the drone strikes might not change anything is that it might not actually happen very much. The article claims that drone strikes in Pakistan will probably be left with the CIA, and since 2004, that's the overwhelming majority of the drone strikes.
On Fri, Mar 22, 2013 at 10:37 AM, Robert Naiman <[email protected]> wrote: > On Fri, Mar 22, 2013 at 10:32 AM, Jim Devine <[email protected]> wrote: >>>> then why were some people on the left pushing so hard to shift control >>>> of the drones from the CIA to the Pentagon? >> >> >> Robert Naiman wrote: >>> There's no necessary contradiction. Moving them from the CIA to the >>> military, from the point of view of groups like Human Rights Watch, is >>> a means to an end. The end is greater transparency and compliance with >>> international law. There's no guarantee that moving them from the CIA >>> to the military will result in greater transparency and compliance >>> with international law. There is reason to believe that it would, but >>> not reasons for ironclad belief. It depends on choices made in the >>> future. Therefore, moving them from the CIA to the military isn't >>> *intrinsically* a good thing. It's a good thing if it leads to greater >>> transparency and compliance with international law. History shows that >>> CIA control isn't the only way to conduct an illegal and unaccountable >>> policy. That's why there can't be any applause for the move until its >>> consequences can be judged. >> >> is this kind of iffy strategy (if that's the word) worth spending >> scarce political capital on? Why not do something to shame Obama for >> being such a Nixon? > > 1) It's no more iffy than a lot of other things people do - life on > Earth is like that 2) it didn't take that much political capital, > which is not that scarce in this case 3) there's no contradiction > between doing both 4) the path from "shaming Obama" to a concrete > change in policy is even more iffy. > >> -- >> Jim Devine / "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your >> own way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante. >> _______________________________________________ >> pen-l mailing list >> [email protected] >> https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l > > > > -- > Robert Naiman > Policy Director > Just Foreign Policy > www.justforeignpolicy.org > [email protected] -- Robert Naiman Policy Director Just Foreign Policy www.justforeignpolicy.org [email protected] _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
