Nobel Peace Prize-Winner Obama Dropped 23,144 Bombs On Muslim-Majority Countries In 2015

Credit: Common Dreams

Via: trueactivist.com
By: Amanda Froelich

Washington’s counter-terrorism strategy to kill extremists seems only to be producing more radicalized individuals.

According to a new study by the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), the United States of America dropped more than 20,000 bombs on Muslim-majority countries Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia in 2015.

22,110 were dropped in Iraq and Syria, 947 in Afghanistan, 58 in Yemen, 18 in Somalia, and 11 in Pakistan reports Global Research.

According to Micah Zenko, a senior fellow at CFR:

“This estimate is based on the fact that the United States has conducted 77 percent of all airstrikes in Iraq and Syria, while there were 28,714 US-led coalition munitions dropped in 2015. This overall estimate is probably slightly low, because it also assumes one bomb dropped in each drone strike in Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia, which is not always the case.”

Credit: CFR

The war tactic is Washington’s counter-terrorism strategy to kill extremists. Despite dropping damning amounts of bombs over the past seventeen months, however, the strategy has failed to eradicate ISIS and other Islamic militant groups.

This is because the primary focus has been to eradicate extremists, rather than to prevent moderate individuals from becoming radicalized.

As a result, in Afghanistan, the Taliban control more territory than at any point since the 2001 U.S. invasion, according to a recent analysis in Foreign Policy magazine.

In 2014, the Central Intelligence Agency estimated the size of Daesh to be between 20,000-31,000 members. But Colonel Steve Warren, a spokesman for the US-led coalition, claims that 25,000 Daesh members have been killed in U.S. air strikes.

If the U.S. insists only six civilians have been killed in the more than 20,000 bombings, something has to be amiss. Which is exactly what Zenko concluded:

“Remarkably, they also claim that alongside the 25,000 fighters killed, only 6 civilians have “likely” been killed in the seventeen-month air campaign. At the same time, officials admit that the size of the group has remained wholly unchanged. In 2014, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) estimated the size of the Islamic State to be between 20,000 and 31,000 fighters, while on Wednesday, Warren again repeated the 30,000 estimate. To summarize the anti-Islamic State bombing calculus: 30,000 – 25,000 = 30,000.”