David Eden

March 1, 2015

English 1000

Journal 1

The first question that I want to look at is if drone strikes in other countries are legal and what has to happen to allow drone strikes to be by the United Stated in foreign lands.

AHMAD, MAHMOOD. "The Use Of Drones In Pakistan: An Inquiry Into The Ethical And Legal Issues." Political Quarterly 85.1 (2014): 65-74. Academic Search Complete. Web. 1 Mar. 2015.

            In this article, Ahmad talks about the legality of drone strikes on foreign land.  He states, that under doctrines written and upheld by the United Nations, the US must have either the consent of the country where the drone strikes are happening or is authorization in in self-defense.  Even though there has never been a public consent by the Pakistani government, there is an unspoken agreement of sorts between the nations.  But the drone strikes are quite questionable in the eyes of the law, since no public statement has been made, and legally Pakistan could have a case.  President Bush after 9/11 declared his Global War on Terror as a war in self-defense, without state boundaries, which has allowed some side stepping of the UN doctrines, but it still is not an excuse that would hold up in the court of law.  International laws also complicate fighting in the region along the Pakistan and Afghanistan boarder, known as the tribal area, and firing from Pakistan into Afghanistan only gives Afghanistan armies the right to fire back, not US soldiers.  Some other US tactics like ‘hot pursuit’, where following the criminal allows crossing of boarders like we do at sea, does not apply to soldiers on the ground.

            After reading this article, I can start to see where the legality of our involvement and attacks can be questioned.  We are operating in a very tricky and high risk, high reward area.  Pakistan can easily remove us and our troops, eliminating us from the area if they want, and basically ending our ability to fight the war on terror.  This article gave me a new view point on the strikes, and by the definition of the UN code, I agree that we may be acting in a questionable legal gray area, but our efforts and attacks in my mind are still needed to fight the war on terror.

            After reading this I would start to question our relationship with Pakistan and how we conduct business with them.  This would let me know some of the terms and agreements that we have between our nations to understand how we conduct business in terms of these air strikes.  I would also start to look into how we train our pilots, to see if their training has impacts on them and how they would act in the field.  I think this would help me understand some of the issues they will face in war zones.