A Military Times investigation has recently revealed that US Central Command has misled the public by failing to give them a fair assessment in accounting for thousands of airstrikes that took place in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria.
The investigation revealed that the data surrounding the strikes doesn't contain all of the missiles that were fired and that incomplete data is still being used by the Pentagon with regard to multiple official reports and media publications.
The United States launches thousands of airstrikes every single year, and Obama's administration alone was guilty of launching 10x the amount of strikes that Bush's administration had launched. Will the number increase even more under this current administration? I sure hope not. Drone strikes have killed thousands of innocent people around the world. Especially since it's well-known that these drones have an embarrassing fail-rate.
According to the recent Military Times investigation, in 2016 alone there were at least 456 airstrikes that took place in Afghanistan that were not recorded in the database that was supposed to be maintained by the US Air Force. These are strikes that cost millions of dollars and actually quite often will result in the lives of innocent human beings being murdered; you'd think that the state could at least be able to keep an accurate accounting of the violence they are committing overseas.
There are also other discrepancies which were found in the report, such as 6,000 strikes that the state allegedly failed to account for that were launched in Iraq and Syria. And if these figures are as inaccurate as this report is suggesting, then the Pentagon and other state officials shouldn't be referring to these reports in any fashion until they are correct and therefore legitimate. The report found that the discrepancies went pretty far back, to around 2001 which was when Bush was in office and they decided to launch their endless war overseas as a response to the 9/11 attacks.
I find it doubtful that we will see them seek to honestly address this matter in any way, or strive to display any improved efficiency and responsibility in years to come. I think that's asking too much of them. So for now, what can we know for sure? That the official numbers are bogus.
Pics:
pixabay
Sources:
https://www.rt.com/usa/376404-us-syria-iraq-airstrikes-unreported/
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/03/the-obama-administrations-drone-strike-dissembling/473541/
https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2017/01/17/obamas-covert-drone-war-numbers-ten-times-strikes-bush/