The strategic measures that focus on internal security is a major concern that has made the government of the united states of America adopt various measures, programs and policies that aims at safeguarding the lives of the American people both within the country and abroad. The government through defense forces and the Central Intelligence Agency has implemented security programs that aim at eliminating terrorist threats particularly in regard to al-Qaida and the Taliban terrorist groups. One of the currently executed programs is the drone policy program that is operational in countries such as Pakistan with an aim of trailing and executing terrorists who pose a threat to the United States and the citizens of other countries as well.
The drones program of the United States is a policy that was started by the former US president with an attempt to fight terrorists and counter terrorism attacks after the intensive mass destruction by the Al-Qaeda terrorist group. The policy involved spotting and elimination of any suspected terrorist by use of unmanned aircrafts in terrorism prone countries such as Somalia, Pakistan and Iraq particularly after the New York and Washington DC terrorists attack on 11th September 2001. The drones are operated and controlled by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the United States using a computer control system and are usually small invisible aircrafts fitted with high definition cameras that can capture images even at night (Entous, 2011). The use of drones in places believed to harbor terrorists associated with the Al-qaeda group aims at intensifying the national security of the United States as the vigorous elimination of these terrorists have succeeded in scaring the Taliban group (Mazzetti, 2009) while encouraging the local governments of these hiding places collaborate in an effort to end the terrorism activities fueled by these outlawed terrorism activities.
The drone program was implemented to target the any person suspected to belong to terrorists groups that poses a threat to the national security of the United States. The policy affects the US citizens as well as the citizens of the country where a targeted terrorist is spotted. The policy affects the United States’ citizens whereby it protects them from the malicious terrorism attacks hence assuring them of a safe place to live both locally and internationally. The citizens with potential missile attacks to the terrorists are also affected as they are prone to become victims of attacks as experienced in various attacks in Pakistan, Iraq and Yemen which has resulted in massive death of the civilians after a drone launched missile.
The impact of this policy however is both positive and negative. The positive effects of the policy is that it was implemented with an aim of protecting the US citizens against malicious terrorists attacks through tracking and killing the members of the famous Taliban and the Al-Qaeda groups. The launch of the policy has resulted in a tremendous reduction in the terrorism activities against the US soil hence sparing the lives and property of the country (Tabassum, 2013). The policy has however resulted in killing of innocent civilians after every terrorist attack. It is estimated that after every missile attack, several innocent civilians have been killed in Pakistan and Yemen, an issue that has raised controversies and concerns from the human rights activists as well as the global government bodies. The negative effects of the drone policy has prompted various concerns whereby even the US citizens does not support its operation as many of the citizens have been killed instead of being protected by the policy.
References
Entous, A. (September, 2012). U.S. Unease over Drone Strikes. Wall Street Journal.
Mazzetti, M. & Mekhennet, S. (December 2009). Qaeda Planner in Pakistan Killed by Drone. New York Times.
Tabassum Z. (March, 2013). U.S. Drone Policy: Obama Seeking To Influence Global Guidelines. Huffington Post. Retrieved from www.huffingtonpost.com
