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Why Support Drone Strikes

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Another reason to support drone strikes is their cost. Compared to financing a Special Forces mission like Neptune Spear, drone strikes are cheap. While specific costs of Special Forces missions and drone strikes are not available, it is possible to estimate their costs and compare it to a special forces mission. The basic pay for an average member of the US Special Forces, or US Air Force is around $43,000. According to the Friends Committee on National Legislation, the average cost per hour of flying a Predator drone is $3500 plus the salary of a pilot. Therefore, the cost of a drone missions can be estimated around $200,000. It is estimated that Neptune Spear involved around 20 Special Forces mission, and add to it this the cost of complex logistics involved in planning and executing Special Force’s mission. It is clear that the cost of a Special Force’s mission exceed the cost of a drone strike. …show more content…
Whenever the US receives intelligence about a terrorist’s location, it is assumed that they try to coordinate a means of capturing or killing the terrorist with the country he is located in. However, if the US cannot come to an agreement about how to eliminate the terrorist, while simultaneously respecting the sovereignty of the country involved, they are known to ignore international law by conducting an assassination within a country without that country’s permission. Conducting the assassination by flying a covert drone tens of thousands of feet above the ground is far less intrusive upon a countries soveirgnty than deploying

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