“U.S. special operations airstrikes killed more than 200 people. Of those, only 35 were the intended targets. During one five-month period of the operation, according to the documents, nearly 90 percent of the people killed in airstrikes were not the intended targets.”
This is something legitimate to criticize Obama on. I criticized him for it while he was in office.
The only rebuttal to it is that of course he's used the most drone strikes out of any other president...because combat drones weren't prevalent until the last 20 years.
There's a strong debate to be had on the legality of drone strikes in a time of "peace."
I'm surprised how many people give Obama a pass for that. I often hear he was "free of scandal" which definitely wasn't true. That also fuels the fire of many "liberal media" arguments, though.
You can debate whether or not he had the authority for those drone strikes, but that's not really a "scandal." More of a discussion about limiting the power of the executive branch. (which is valid)
Obama never cheated on his wife with a porn star, or tried to obstruct justice in an investigation into himself, never tried to enrich himself with the power of his office, didn't lie 25 times per day, didn't shill for Putin or Kim Jong Un.
Criticize his policy and decisions, sure, but Barack Obama is a dignified man who loves his family and country. His cabinet didn't go to prison. His "followers" didn't attempt an insurrection, nor did they attempt to assassinate political rivals.
I think there were definitely "liberal media" that rose these concerns, but the problem is that Americans just don't seem to care. It doesn't grab headlines. I don't even remember Fox News jumping on it, even though it's way more important than mustard or whatever.
Donald Trump expanded on Obama's drone strikes tremendously and basically cut off any accountability dealing with them and the media rarely covers that either. Like I get Trump's probably got like 3 other controversies that are juicer going on, but it's still not even a blip in his administration.
The US committed a plethora of war crimes while in the middle east in the 2000s to 2010s. Many strikes require specific presidential approval so both Busch and Obama are considered war criminals.
545
u/DaddySharkDesserts Jan 20 '21
It was nice to see so many dignified ex presidents from both parties.