10 January 2017

The U.S. dropped over 26,000 bombs last year

An average of 3 per hour, 24 hours/day, every day during the final year of the Obama administration.
President Obama did reduce the number of US soldiers fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, but he dramatically expanded the air wars and the use of special operations forces around the globe. In 2016, US special operators could be found in 70% of the world’s nations, 138 countries – a staggering jump of 130% since the days of the Bush administration.

Looking back at President Obama’s legacy, the Council on Foreign Relation’s Micah Zenko added up the defense department’s data on airstrikes and made a startling revelation: in 2016 alone, the Obama administration dropped at least 26,171 bombs. This means that every day last year, the US military blasted combatants or civilians overseas with 72 bombs; that’s three bombs every hour, 24 hours a day.

While most of these air attacks were in Syria and Iraq, US bombs also rained down on people in Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan. That’s seven majority-Muslim countries...

The twisted legal architecture the Obama administration has constructed to justify its interventions, especially extrajudicial drone killings with no geographic restrictions, will now be transferred into the erratic hands of Donald Trump.

5 comments:

  1. RoyJanuary 10, 2017 at 11:19 AM

    That last paragraph hits the nail on the head. The largest issue with obscene Presidential power is that it doesn't decrease when the new President enters office. Obama inherited and expanded Bush's vast power, and Trump will likely do the same with Obama's power.

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  2. NepkarelJanuary 10, 2017 at 1:51 PM

    And that's te guy that got the Nobel Peace prize.

    Good luck with the fragile ego you just elected.

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  3. Stan B.January 12, 2017 at 4:57 PM

    And let's not forget that we dropped more ordinance than the Allied & Axis powers combined during WWII on... Viet Nam.

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  4. RutiJanuary 20, 2017 at 2:34 AM

    I have been looking every where and a fact that I would love to find is a comparison of the number of bombs dropped in Obama's 8 years vs. the number dropped in Bush II's 8 years. Maybe with your far-reaching abilities and wide range of reader fans someone might be able to find the data...

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