So, bombing sovereign nations doesn't make them like us?

I read an article in The Atlantic today about Farea al-Muslimi, a 22 year old Yemeni democracy advocate.  He spoke before a U.S. Senate committee on America's use of drones to strike at targets in countries like Yemen, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and who knows where else.

Al-Muslimi's words were powerful and moving.  They were also a bit "Well no shit, really?"

Essentially what he said boils down to "Drone attacks terrorize the population and make them fear and hate the US.  Even when those killed were the bad guys, its still terrifying to have missiles blowing stuff up where you live."

I might have paraphrased a bit, but that's the gist of his argument.  We're doing more harm than good by these drone attacks.  If you live in an area where the US is seemingly blowing up buildings at random, what is your view of the US going to be?   How is this in the long term helping to fight global terrorism?

Its not.  If anything, its adding to the ranks of future militants as the children who grew up in fear mistakenly fall prey to blaming America for everything and become radicalized.  

Am I saying if we stop drone strikes terrorists will go away?  Of course not, I'm not stupid, I'm merely saying that by doing this the way we are, we're just insuring the fight is perpetuated onto the next generation.  

How would America react if a foreign nation decided to kill "terrorists" on our soil without permission?  It would be a massive international incident and the hawks would probably be clamoring for armed strikes against the perpetrator.  

Instead, since we're America, its ok because Yemen, Pakistan, etc. can't directly threaten us. Might makes right.   

Except it doesn't.  Might causes fear and application of that might creates enemies.  

I'm not saying we ignore the problem of terrorists in areas like Yemen.  But the way we're going about solving it, by random acts of violence which kill civilians far too often, that's not a solution.  That's continuing to make ourselves part of the problem.

Hopefully the Senators will listen to al-Muslimi's words and reconsider our use of drones in strikes against sovereign nations.