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In sign of shifting policy, Obama looking to end to perpetual U.S. ‘war on terror’
Faced with criticism about civilian casualties in attacks by unmanned aerial vehicles, Obama said the United States would only use those drone strikes when a threat was “continuing and imminent,” a nuanced change from the previous policy of launching strikes against a significant threat.
Under new presidential guidance signed by Obama this week, the Defense Department will also take over some lethal drone operations from the CIA.
That would subject drone attacks to more scrutiny from Congress and might lead to the Pentagon taking over drone operations in Yemen, but not in Pakistan, where the CIA is likely to continue to run the program.
With al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden killed in a U.S. raid in 2011, a number of the group’s top members taken out in drone strikes, and the U.S. military role in Afghanistan winding down, Obama made clear it was time for a policy shift.
“Beyond Afghanistan, we must define our effort not as a boundless global war on terror’ – but rather as a series of persistent, targeted efforts to dismantle specific networks of violent extremists that threaten America,” Obama said.
Pakistan said it appreciated Obama’s acknowledgement that force alone did not work, adding that the root causes of terrorism had to be addressed.
“On the use of drone strikes, the government of Pakistan has consistently maintained that the drone strikes are counter-productive, entail loss of innocent civilian lives, have human rights and humanitarian implications and violate the principles of national sovereignty, territorial integrity and international law,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
