If you're a natsec analyst/commenter/purveyor of hot takes I'm asking today that you be careful about how you discuss the confirmation that the Kabul drone strike in fact only killed innocent victims. Quick thread.
It's important to be honest in our commentary that this kind of thing has been common throughout the entirety of America's drone wars. Commenting in this moment in ways that implies this was simply an unusual mistake risks creating a false narrative of this being unusual.
It's also important that we not erase other innocent civilians of drone strikes who happened to have been killed in a strike where we did in fact hit a known target, but nonetheless killed numerous innocent bystanders. Their deaths are no less tragic.
There's a real danger here if we get this wrong that the public walks away thinking the drone wars are normally much more accurate and only kill 'bad guys' and that this was a horrible 'mistake.' That's never been the truth and this should highlight that reality not undermine it.
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