Poll: Americans approve of drone strikes on groups deemed 'terrorists'

More than three-quarters of Americans say it's acceptable for the United States to use an unmanned aerial vehicle, or drone, to kill an American citizen abroad if that person has joined a group deemed to be a “terrorist” organization, according to a new Associated Press-GfK poll.

A majority, 6 in 10, supports the use of drones to target “terrorists” in general. Only 13 percent oppose the use of drones, the poll said (PDF), and another 24 percent don't feel strongly either way.

The AP-GfK Poll was conducted April 23-27, in the days after President Barack Obama publicly apologized for a CIA drone strike in Pakistan that inadvertently killed American hostage Warren Weinstein and Italian hostage Giovanni Lo Porto. The strike also killed Ahmed Farouq, an American citizen who was an Al-Qaeda operative. Another strike killed Adam Gadhani, an American citizen who joined Al-Qaeda and became Osama Bin Laden's spokesman.

The survey is the latest in several years of data showing broad support among the U.S. public for a targeted killing program begun under President George W. Bush and expanded dramatically under Obama. While the U.S. once condemned Israel for targeted killing from the air, such operations are now the centerpiece of American counterterrorism policy, and they enjoy widespread public backing.

Support for targeted killing with drones crosses party lines, the new poll found. Nearly 6 in 10 Democrats favor using drones for targeted killing, while only 16 percent are opposed. Among Republicans, 72 percent are in favor and only 10 percent are opposed. Independents are more ambivalent, with 45 percent in favor and 12 percent opposed; 37 percent are neutral on the issue.

Meanwhile, 56 percent of Americans think it's acceptable for the U.S. to use drones to target and kill people believed to belong to “terrorist” groups overseas if there is a risk of innocent Americans being killed.

More than 4 in 10 of those who initially said they favor using drones – or that they didn't favor or oppose using them – said it's unacceptable to use drones if innocent Americans could be killed.

The Associated Press-GfK poll did not include questions about foreign civilian casualties or about public confidence in the government's assertion that the vast majority of those killed in drone strikes are “terrorists.”

Independent groups have estimated that at least hundreds, and possibly thousands, of foreign civilians have been killed in the operations, a count the U.S. government disputes.

Drone skeptics say most polls on the subject frame the question with the assumption that those targeted are so-called “terrorists,” when it's not clear that is always the case.

"Almost everyone, of course, is going to support killing people who are trying to kill us, but that's not who we are necessarily targeting in each case," said Sarah Kreps, an associate professor in the Department of Government at Cornell University.

Kreps examined poll data and found that if respondents are confronted with evidence of errors and civilian casualties in some drone strikes, support for the strikes drops below a majority.

Since the first operation in 2002, there have been 396 drone strikes in Pakistan and 126 in Yemen, according to the New America Foundation, which tracks the strikes using media reports. The CIA has conducted all of the strikes in Pakistan and most of them in Yemen, though the military also conducts drone strikes in Yemen.

The pace of strikes in both countries has diminished in recent years. The Obama administration said it has imposed a standard in Yemen that no strike would occur unless there was a near certainty that no civilian would be harmed. That standard – more restrictive than the rules governing traditional military action – was not in place in Pakistan, which is considered part of the Afghan war theater. In Pakistan, the drop-off in strikes has been attributed to the success of the program in destroying much of core Al-Qaeda. 

The Associated Press