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In sign of shifting policy, Obama looking to end to perpetual U.S. ‘war on terror’
The number of drone strikes has dropped in the past year after peaking in the middle of Obama’s first term.
The New America Foundation’s widely cited drone attack database shows there have been 355 drone strikes in Pakistan since 2004 and more than 60 in Yemen since 2009.
Despite the new limits on drone attacks, pilotless aircraft are increasingly playing a role in the armory of the United States and other countries.
While Obama largely has a free hand as commander in chief to set U.S. drone policy, Congress has used its power of the purse to block him from closing Guantanamo.
Obama has been frustrated by his inability to make good on his 2008 campaign pledge to shut the prison, which was opened by his predecessor, President George W. Bush, to hold men rounded up on suspicion of involvement with al Qaeda and the Taliban after the September 11 attacks.
A hunger strike by 103 of the 166 detainees – 32 of whom have lost so much weight that they are being force-fed – has put pressure on Obama to take action.
“There is no justification beyond politics for Congress to prevent us from closing a facility that should never have been opened,” Obama said.
