Drones Case Neg


Politics Links (Dems)—Withdrawal Unpopular



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Politics Links (Dems)—Withdrawal Unpopular


Democrats favor Drones as part of an Afghanistan counterinsurgency strategy

Brooks 2009 [David Brooks, writer for the New York Times, “The Afghan Imperative,” The New York Times, September 25, 2009 Friday]

Always there is the illusion of the easy path. Always there is the illusion, which gripped Donald Rumsfeld that now grips many Democrats, that you can fight a counterinsurgency war with a light footprint, with cruise missiles, with special forces operations and unmanned drones. Always there is the illusion, deep in the bones of the Pentagon's Old Guard, that you can fight a force like the Taliban by keeping your troops mostly in bases, and then sending them out in well-armored convoys to kill bad guys. There is simply no historical record to support these illusions. The historical evidence suggests that these middling strategies just create a situation in which you have enough forces to assume responsibility for a conflict, but not enough to prevail.

Politics Links (Public)—Withdrawal Popular



The tide is turning from powerful sources against drones

Malick, 10

[Ibrahim Malick, " Drone Attacks May Stop, But Is That Good News?" June 7, 2010, Chowk, http://www.chowk.com/articles/drone-attacksmay- stop-but-is-that-good-news-ibrahim-malick.htm]



A twenty-nine page report submitted today to the UN Human Rights Council, by special representative Philip Alston demanding an immediate suspension of drone attacks will not persuade Obama’s war cabinet to change course; but an ever growing domestic opposition appears promising. In categorical terms Philip Alston told journalists at the UN media stakeout last week that those dropping bombs in Pakistan are so distant from the combat zone that they are “desensitised” – as though they were playing video games. Alston said: “because operators are based thousands of miles away from the battlefield, and undertake operations entirely through computer screens and remote audio-feed, there is a risk of developing a ‘Playstation’ mentality to killing.” Although this statement will be prominently displayed in Pakistani newspapers, this assertion is neither compelling nor novel. Brookings scholar and, author of “Wired for War”, PW Singer has been making similar arguments for quite some time. However, there is a growing opposition to drone strikes from anti-war activists with journalists and powerful American think tanks now joining the fray. While the anti-war activists are viewed by the American media as irrelevant, one can hardly say that about elite think tank analysts. The Council on Foreign Relations, America’s most influential center-to-right think tank yesterday challenged the Obama administration to publicly debate the drone strategy. Mind you, CFR does not oppose the war on terror per se, but questions the claimed efficacy of unmanned armed drones to lead the effort. CFR’s Fellow for Conflict Prevention, Micha Zenko, questioned this strategy pointing out that in 8-9 years there have been over 125 drone strikes, but al Qaeda’s military leadership is still operative.

CMR DA


CMR is on the brink and is a prerequisite to establish an Afghanistan strategy

Heuvel, 10 [Katrina vanden Heuvel, " After McChrystal, time to change course in Afghanistan" June 23, 2010, Washington Post, http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2010/06/after_mcchrystal_time_to_chang.html]

Gen. Stanley McChrystal has submitted his resignation. Or he's been fired. In any case, it was time for him to go. His departure will help slow the increasing erosion in civil-military relations -- aided by both political parties over the last 20 years -- which has threatened civilian control of the military. It also means we can now turn to a more fundamental exit debate: How do we change course and craft a responsible strategy to end the war in Afghanistan?
Military brass regard the drone as one of its favorite weapons – they won’t let it go without a fight

Drew, 9 [Christopher Drew, March 17, 2009 " Drones Are Weapons of Choice in Fighting Qaeda" March 17, 200, Common Dreams, http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/03/17-4]

A missile fired by an American drone killed at least four people late Sunday at the house of a militant commander in northwest Pakistan, the latest use of what intelligence officials have called their most effective weapon against Al Qaeda. And Pentagon officials say the remotely piloted planes, which can beam back live video for up to 22 hours, have done more than any other weapons system to track down insurgents and save American lives in Iraq and Afghanistan. The planes have become one of the military's favorite weapons despite many shortcomings resulting from the rush to get them into the field. An explosion in demand for the drones is contributing to new thinking inside the Pentagon about how to develop and deploy new weapons systems.

US CMR is key to preventing Pakistani collapse

Barton and Unger 9 [Frederick Barton and Noam Unger, ‘9. Barton is Codirector, Post-Conflict Reconstruction Project and Senior Adviser, International Security Program at the CSIS. Unger is fellow and policy director of the Foreign Assistance Reform project at Brookings. “civil-military relations, fostering development, and expanding civilian capacity ,” http://csis.org/publication/civil-military-relations-fostering-development-andexpanding- civilian-capacity.]

The security rationale for stability and development in poor and fragile states is based on the understanding that strengthening the economy of states and ensuring social equity are in the short and long term interests of the United States. Stable states pose the United States with far fewer security challenges than their weak and fragile counterparts. Indeed, stable states with healthy economies offer the United States opportunities for trade and represent potential partners in the fields of security and development. In contrast, weak and failing states pose serious challenges to the security of United States, including terrorism, drug production, money laundering and people smuggling. In addition, state weakness has frequently proven to have the propensity to spread to neighboring states, which in time can destabilize entire regions. While the group acknowledged that the cases of Iraq and Afghanistan are particular in scope and complexity (and may not be repeated in the near future by the U.S.), participants broadly concurred that the lessons of these challenges are that the United States must improve and expand its stabilization and development capabilities. In particular, cases such as Pakistan and Nigeria, huge countries with strategic importance, make clear that a military response to many internal conflicts will be severely limited. As such, increased emphasis on civilian capacity within the U.S. government and civil-military relations in general, will greatly improve the United States’ ability to respond to such crises in the future.





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