Are U.S. Drone Strikes On The Decline?

Drone operators flying an MQ-9 Reaper training mission from a control station at Holloman Air Force Base, N.M., last year. Airman 1st Class Michael Shoemaker/US Air Force, via Reuters

Debate Aside, Number of Drone Strikes Drops Sharply -- New York Times

WASHINGTON — President Obama embraced drone strikes in his first term, and the targeted killing of suspected terrorists has come to define his presidency.

But lost in the contentious debate over the legality, morality and effectiveness of a novel weapon is the fact that the number of strikes has actually been in decline. Strikes in Pakistan peaked in 2010 and have fallen sharply since then; their pace in Yemen has slowed to half of last year’s rate; and no strike has been reported in Somalia for more than a year.

In a long-awaited address on Thursday at the National Defense University, Mr. Obama will make his most ambitious attempt to date to lay out his justification for the strikes and what they have achieved. He may follow up on public promises, including one he made in his State of the Union speech in February to define a “legal architecture” for choosing targets, possibly shifting more strikes from the C.I.A. to the military; explain how he believes that presidents should be “reined in” in their exercise of lethal power; and take steps to make a program veiled in secrecy more transparent.

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My Comment: U.S. drone strikes do appear to be on the decline .... for now .... but this trend can change around very quickly.