Thursday, April 23, 2015

Blog 10: US Airstrikes claim lives of two hostages


            On Thursday President Barack Obama made an apology for the deaths of two hostages held by Al Qaeda in January. The two men killed were American and Italian.  President Obama took full responsibly of the deaths that occurred during a counter terrorism operation.  The white house however did not explain why it took three months to come out with the information. It usually takes a couple of weeks for the identities of a drone strike victim to be verified but not three months.  Two other Americans were killed in the same region due to drone strikes but the US did not know they were present at the time of the counter terrorism strike.  The United States did not know the American and the Italian were being held at the site of the strike. Not much else is known of the attacks due to the terms of the secret arrangement in 2004 between the US and Pakistan which allows the CIA to operate missions in tribal area of Pakistan that cannot be acknowledged by the US or Pakistan. This is one downside to “no boots on the ground” that the American public forced the government to uphold by intense criticisms of the war efforts. We have the best military in the world with the most highly trained operators. The US would not have to put all boots on the ground but under certain circumstances those who are trained need to be on the ground. It is not like a 20-year-old Navy sailor who is a barber is going to retrieve hostages. Let the men and women who signed up for the task and protect innocent civilians taken hostage by Islamic terrorist groups.



Christopher Eakes
April 23, 2:35PM


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