Berto Jongman: US Drone Strike Death Numbers — At What Cost? + Drone Meta-RECAP

Berto Jongman

Being read in Europe.

Counting Drone Strike Deaths

Columbia Law School, Human Rights Clinic

October 2012

Read full report (PDF 36 Pages)

Phi Beta Iota:  At a unit cost of $36.8 million (but with a total program cost of $11.8 billion), one has to question the true cost and practical return on investment of this program, never mind the cultural, ideological, political, and social costs.  Assuming a $10 billion total cost (actually must more across different programs and supporting agencies), with 1,000 “valid” targets (never mind collateral damage or the probability that fewer than a 100 were worthy of bullet but not a Hellfire), that comes to $10 million cost per individual human target.  While significantly better than the $50 million cost per individual Taliban body, the disconnect between means, ways, and ends is provocative of reflection.

See Also:

Berto Jongman: Variations on a Theme – CIA Drones and Suicide Bombs

Chuck Spinney: Drones — Of Idiots, By Idiots, For Idiots + Meta-RECAP

Chuck Spinney: Myth of Precision-Guided Coercion

Chuck Spinney: Real Cost vs Real Value of Drones? + RECAP

CIA Further Out of Control–New Persian “Base”

David Isenberg: NSA Ubber Alles, Drones in the Toilet

David Swanson: Lies and Consequences Across 15 Wars

DefDog: CIA Decides Who to Blow Up – Without Having Any Idea Who They Are…

DefDog: Drones Kill US Forces – Once Again, BAD IDEA

DefDog: Iran Hijacks US Drone Shows Film + RECAP

DefDog: Living Under Drones – Outcomes in Pakistan

DefDog: Mystery Drone in Pakistan–And No HUMINT

Defense Science Board to DoD: Get Brain + RECAP

Dolphin: Their Drones, Our Drones, and EMP Rays

Drones Everywhere, Some Tiny, None Smart

Event: 28-29 Apr Washington DC International Drone Summit: Killing and Spying by Remote Control

G.I. Wilson: Killer Drones, Moral Disengagement, + War Crimes RECAP

John Robb: Automation of Censorship and Extra-Judicial Assassination

John Robb: Drone Diplomacy – Comply or Die + Meta RECAP

John Robb: Micro Drones Threaten US Citizens at Home

John Robb: Worms, Drones, SuperBugs, & Plagues – The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

Josh Kilbourn: Pakistan Condemns 245 US Drone Attacks

Journal: AF BODY COUNT–$50 Million Per Body

Journal: Drones of War

Journal: Dumbest Weapons Money Can Buy…

Journal: Legality of US Drones as Killing Machines . . .

Journal: The Legal And Moral Issues Of Drone Use

Marcus Aurelius: CIA Counter-Terror Drone Boss – Cognitive Dissonance in Spades + RECAP

Marcus Aurelius: CIA Scrambles to Rush Spies and Drones to Libya – Makes Budget Increase Play on the Side

Marcus Aurelius: Obama, CIA, Murder by Drone…

Mini-Me: Assassination – Made in America – At What Cost? Impeachable Treason.

Mini-Me: Assassination Nation – How Others See the USA….

Mini-Me: End of the Delusional UAV Era

NIGHTWATCH: Everyone Has Drones Now — And Drone Counter-Measures

Owl: 63 Drone Launch Sites Across the USA

Pakistan Demarche to CIA, Envoy Leaves Early

Patrick Meier: Drones for Non-Violent Resistance

Paul Craig Roberts: Washington Leads World Into Lawlessness

Reference: Gorgon Stare–USAF Goes Nuts (Again)

Steven Aftergood: Secret Systems Cluttering the Electromagnetic Spectrum

The Drone Wars

The Year of the Drone: Map & Analysis of U.S. Drone Strikes in Pakistan, 2004-2010

USAF–From Gorgon Stare to Micro-Drone Puff

USA Spectrum Out of Control & Self-Destructing

Winslow Wheeler: Common Defense Quarterly Article on Drones

Winslow Wheeler: Drones Dead on Arrival

Oct 17

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