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Anthony Om
Ms. Ingram
English 1 Honors
16 March 2016
Persuasive Essay
An eye in the sky that hides in the clouds watches the fields and it can spy in the night
with its infrared cameras, It rains death from above with hellfire missiles. It sounds like
something from a sci fi movie, but it is real. So should this technology be used on the war on
terrorism? I believe that these flying death machines should not be active during the war on
terrorism. These drone strikes are killing civilians, violating international law and giving terrorist
reasons to fight back.
Drone strikes are killing an alarming amount of civilians. Documents from Radio
Free Europe/Radio Liberty state that drone strikes from targeting ISIS in the past year 173
civilians in Syria and in Iraq 286 civilians has lost their lives because of drone strikes (Radio
Free Europe/Radio Liberty). Which is a total of 459 civilians lost in the past year. Other people
say that drones are doing wonderful on the field with 40 Al-qaeda leaders no longer working in
the field since 6 months ago (Delcan Walsh). But this just proves that these drones are unruly
killing machines because the amount of civilians lost and the amount of terrorist dead shows that
these drone strikes are not successful.
Drone strikes are violating international law and therefore should not be active during the
war on terrorism. Article 6(1) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights states
that every human being has the inherent right to life No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of
his life(United Nations Human Rights). Technically these assassinations of terrorist leaders are

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illegal because the terrorist leaders are taken out without ever knowing what is coming. Also
drone strikes are violating the UN charter because article 2(4) of the UN Charter states that All
Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the
territorial integrity or political independence of any state(United Nations). This shows that these
drone strikes are unlawful because they are damaging the sovereignty of the countries where the
drone strikes are taking place. Supporters of drone strikes are saying that they are lawful because
article 51 of the UN Charter which states that nothing in the present Charter shall impair the
inherent right of individual or collective self-defence if an armed attack occurs against a Member
of the United Nation(United Nations). Which also includes nations under attack seeking help.
But the government of Pakistan no longer seeks US help and wants the drone strikes to stop
(Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty).
Drone Strikes are giving terrorists a reason to fight back. An example that shows drones
strikes causing terrorist retaliation is Faisal Shahzad. Faisal Shahzad got in trouble with law
enforcement in 2010 for trying to detonate a bomb in times square. Faisal says he wants to
avenge the death of Baitullah Mehsud a taliban leader that got taken out by a drone strike
(Foreign Affairs Vol. 94 No. 5). This shows that drone strikes are terrible because terrorist will
take action against drone strikes. Another example of American drone strikes backfiring is Jabir
al-Shabwani. Jabir al-Shabwani is a leader of a peaceful sheil tribe in Yemen. He got taken out
by an American drone strike. In response the tribe took out the main oil pipeline in Yemen. The
government of Yemen now has to pay 1 billion dollars for repairs.
Drone strikes should not be active on the war on terrorism for many reasons. The drone
strikes are causing terrorist retaliation, breaking international law and killing civilians. So it is up
to you decide if we should deploy theses eyes in the skies during the war on terror.