Unmanned drones: Targeted killing vs. 'collateral murder'

When a Pakistani-U.S. national pleaded guilty last week to a failed attempt to detonate explosives packed in a vehicle in the heart of New York City, he admitted that one of the reasons he targeted the busy Times Square neighborhood was to "injure and kill" as many people as possible. The presiding judge, Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum, asked the suspect, Faisal Shahzad, 30, whether he was conscious of the fact he would have killed dozens of civilians, including women and children. "Well, the (U.S.) drone-hits in Afghanistan and Iraq don't see children; they don't see anybody. They kill women, they kill children. They kill everybody. And it's war," he said, at his arraignment last week. Describing himself as a "Muslim soldier", Shahzad also told the judge one of the reasons for his abortive act of terrorism was his anger at the U.S. military for recklessly using drones, which have claimed the lives of scores of innocent civilians, along with suspected insurgents, in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Yemen and in the tribal areas of Pakistan.