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This type of argument always confused me. Obama's actions were blatantly illegal and that seems like a pretty popular opinion in any left-leaning circle I've discussed politics in. You couldn't talk up Obama too much during his presidency too long without someone killing the conversation by dejectedly saying "drone strikes" (and I do mean literally the phrase "drone strikes" as a complete utterance; this happened to me multiple times). Sending every living former president to prison for life for war crimes would be overwhelmingly popular among the left.
It's probably colored by things like center-left and left media calling the Obama administration scandal free in 2017 and 2015 respectively. Keeping in mind that Anwar al-Awlaki was 2011, the wedding drone strike was 2013 and the ATF Gunwalking was uncovered in 2014.
Yeah, war crimes aren't scandals, they're just normal.
I think people complaining about Obama's stance on drone strikes started earlier. Probably because it was a new thing towards the end of Bush's presidency and Obama was a progressive darling who was pretty vague on his policies as a candidate, so I think the anti-war part of the left felt pretty betrayed that he didn't stop them immediately.
So normal that those same outlets published op-eds that the Bush administration should be tried for war crimes?
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Honestly, as a member of the Left, the muted response to Biden basically shutting down the drone war and getting out of Afghanistan showed me while there are some honest brokers among the anti-war left who spent 8 years attacking Obama, but many of them are just anti-Democratic Party, not anti-war. Not even getting into the small group of contarians who acted like Trump was a peacemaker, then ignored Biden actually being the least war hawkish POTUS since probably Carter or some guy in the early 20th century.
Al-Zawahiri was drone struck in Afghanistan a full year after the withdrawal. The strike on civilians in a white corolla the month after the Kabul withdrawal is also somewhat suspect in terms of "shutting down the drone war" but close enough in time that most would let it slide. Combat operations in Iraq may have ended but they and Syria to this day still get to operate under the active hostility area rules of drone strike engagement allowing local commanders to order them rather than the stricter (but not flat denial) policy of requiring White House approval for striking outside those areas. Close only counts in horseshoes, hand grenades and drone warfare policy?
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