U.S. jet lands on an aircraft carrier. (photo: U.S. Navy)
The US
Dropped More Than 26,000 Bombs on Muslim-Majority Countries in 2016
By Micah Zenko, Council on
Foreign Relations
06 January 17
As
President Obama enters the final weeks of his presidency, there will be ample
assessments of his foreign military approach, which has focused on reducing
U.S. ground combat troops (with the notable exception of the Afghanistan
surge), supporting local security partners, and authorizing the expansive use
of air power. Whether this strategy “works”—i.e. reduces the threat posed by
extremists operating from those countries and improves overall security and
governance on the ground—is highly contested. Yet, for better or worse, these
are the central tenants of the Obama doctrine.
In
President Obama’s last year in office, the United States dropped 26,171 bombs
in seven countries. This estimate is undoubtedly low, considering reliable data
is only available for airstrikes in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, and Libya, and a
single “strike,” according to the
Pentagon’s definition, can involve multiple bombs or munitions. In 2016, the
United States dropped 3,027 more bombs—and in one more country,
Libya—than in 2015.
Most
(24,287) were dropped in Iraq and Syria. This number is based on the percentage
of total coalition airstrikes carried out in 2016 by the United States in
Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR), the counter-Islamic State campaign. The
Pentagon publishes a running count of bombs dropped by the United States and
its partners, and we found data for 2016 using OIR public strike releases
and this handy tool.* Using this data, we found that
in 2016, the United States conducted about 79 percent (5,904) of
the coalition airstrikes in Iraq and Syria, which together total 7,473. Of the
total 30,743 bombs that the coalition dropped, then, the United States dropped
24,287 (79 percent of 30,743).
To
determine how many U.S. bombs were dropped on each Iraq and Syria, we looked at
the percentage of total U.S. OIR airstrikes conducted in each country. They
were nearly evenly split, with 49.8 percent (or 2,941 airstrikes) carried out
in Iraq, and 50.2 percent (or 2,963 airstrikes) in Syria. Therefore, the number
of bombs dropped were also nearly the same in the two countries (12,095 in
Iraq; 12,192 in Syria). Last year, the United States conducted approximately 67
percent of airstrikes in Iraq in 2016, and 96 percent of those in Syria.
C 2015 Reader Supported News
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"The master class
has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.
The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject
class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their
lives." Eugene Victor Debs
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