REPORT: Even Before Obama Expanded Things, Drones Killed Way Too Many Civilians

U.S. Air ForceA new previously classified report from the Pakistani government details how, even before he increase in tempo and questionable drone tactics of the Obama administration, strikes from American drones resulted in a high number of civilian casualties.

The report, titled “Details of Attacks by NATO Forces/Predators in FATA,” was obtained by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism.

The report, which stretches from January 2006 until October 2009, details a startlingly high amount of collateral damage in the Pakistan government’s casualty tally.

Of the 746 people killed in drone strikes over that period, 147 of them are described as civilians. A shocking 94 of them were children.

That count largely lines up with the tally kept by the New America Foundation, a nonpartisan American think tank.

The period outlined in the report fell predominantly in President George W. Bush’s tenure in the White House. President Barack Obama heavily expanded use of unmanned aerial vehicles to prosecute terror suspects. Obama’s most active drone use fell just outside the purview of the report, in 2010, where 122 drone strikes resulted in 849 deaths.

In a recent speech, Obama addressed the high tempo of his drone strikes, particularly those outside of Afghanistan.

“Beyond the Afghan theater, we only target al Qaeda and its associated forces,” he said. “And even then, the use of drones is heavily constrained.”