Libya War: sending in the drones

The Obama Administration is escalating its involvement in the Libya War with the introduction of armed drones. Glenn Greenwald gives a good description of the ways this is problematic in Nobel Peace Drones Salon 04/22/2011.

Spencer Ackerman writes about the new escalation in Pentagon: Robot War Over Libya Begins in 3, 2, 1 ... Danger Room 04/21/2011:

Thursday marks the end of U.S. strike missions in Libya. In a press conference, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Gen. James Cartwright, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, announced that armed Predator drones have been approved for use in Libya. They flew for the first time on Thursday, but "the weather wasn’t good enough, so we had to bring them back," Cartwright said.

Recall Gates told Congress three weeks ago that the U.S. strike role would end once NATO took command of the war. U.S. pilots continued to bomb targets to enforce the no-fly zone, but left the hard work of attacking Gadhafi’s ground forces to NATO pilots. The arrival of the Predators — two combat air patrols, Cartwright said, so probably five drones — reverses all that.

Tags: libya war

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