Google+ drone questioner calls Obama response ‘disturbing’

The answer prompted headlines overseas that Obama had “admitted”
and “confirmed” the drone program, and a Pakistani official called the strikes,
which Pakistan has long known about, “unlawful, counterproductive and hence
unacceptable.”

{mosads}As for Engel, who said a Google employee stopped him on the
street to ask the question, he said that Obama’s answer on civilian casualties was
an example “of the callousness and carelessness that kind of provokes anti-Americanism
in the first place, which is one of the causes of terrorism.”

“Mr. Obama said that there are civilian casualties but it’s
not a lot. By conservative estimates these drone attacks have killed hundreds
of people,” Engel said in a video posted to YouTube. “That’s a lot of people by
anyone’s standards, and I would hope by President Obama’s.”

Obama defended the use of drones on Monday, calling them
precise, targeted strikes on terrorists who are actively plotting to carry out
attacks against the United States.

Engel, who describes himself as politically independent, said
in an email that he wasn’t an Obama supporter in 2008 because of his position
on expanding the war in Afghanistan. Of course, he didn’t support the GOP nominee, Arizona Sen. John McCain,
either — he voted for a third candidate.

The Brooklyn-ite, who has previously worked for Al Gore’s Current
TV, said he had a pre-planned trip
to the Middle East this week, and now he’s going to expand his trip to look at
the issue of drone strikes.