US drone strikes cause worldwide opposition

This video from the USA is called MEDEA BENJAMIN TALK ON DRONE WARFARE.

From daily The Morning Star in Britain:

US drone strikes prompt global anger

Wednesday 13 June 2012

by Our Foreign Desk

The Obama administration’s escalation of its illegal drone assassination campaign in foreign countries is widely opposed around the world, according to a Pew Research Centre survey released today.

In 17 out of 21 countries surveyed by the US think tank more than half of the people disapproved of US drone attacks targeting people deemed extremist in underdeveloped countries such as Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia.

But in the United States a majority, or 62 per cent, approved the drone campaign including 74 per cent of Republicans and 58 per cent of Democrats.

The polls were nationally representative surveys conducted by telephone or in-person interviews in 21 countries during March and April.

“There remains a widespread perception that the US acts unilaterally and does not consider the interests of other countries,” the study authors said, especially in predominantly Muslim nations where US meddling in the name of anti-terror operations is “still widely unpopular.”

The White House declined to comment on the report titled Global Opinion of Obama Slips, International Policies Faulted.

Speaking in advance of the release Pew Research Centre President Andrew Kohut said: “We continue to see the public thinking Obama has not fulfilled his promise that he would seek international approval for military force and that’s related to displeasure with the drone strikes.”

This is the first year Pew has included a question about the use of drones in its survey on the Obama administration.

“It’s now a global issue,” Mr Kohut observed.

In Pakistan CIA drone strikes have killed about 2,500 civilians since 2004, as well as senior anti-US militants like Abu Yahya al-Libi while US drone controllers have killed an estimated 800 people in Yemen since 2002, with attacks intensifying since Ali Abdullah Saleh stepped down in February in the face of a popular uprising.

Meanwhile around 170 people are believed to have been killed by US drone strikes in Somalia.

On Monday a former counter-terrorism adviser to Mr Obama accused him of having “routinised and normalised extra judicial killing from the Oval Office.”

Michael Boyle said that Mr Obama “is authorising murder on a weekly basis.”

A column by Jimmy Carter provides extraordinary testimony by an ex-president against the Obama administration for engaging in assassinations and other criminal violations of international law and the US Constitution: here.