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Should the United States continue its use of drone strikes?
Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, stated the following during the Oct. 23, 2012 "Third Party Presidential Debate," in Chicago, IL, hosted by the Free and Equal Elections Foundation, available at www.c-span.org:
"We have to stop with the drone strikes." Oct. 23, 2012 Gary Johnson
Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, stated the following during a Jan. 30, 2012 Google+ video chat, "Obama Addresses Drone Strikes During 'Hangout,'" available at YouTube.com:
"As a general proposition... I want to make sure the people understand actually drones have not caused a huge number of civilian casualties. For the most part they have been very precise precision strikes against al-Qaeda and their affiliates. And we are very careful in terms of how it’s been applied...
This is a targeted, focused effort, at people who are on a list of active terrorists who are trying to go in and harm Americans, hit American facilities, American bases...
It is part and parcel of our overall authority when it comes to battling al-Qaeda...
We have to be judicious in how we use drones, but understand that probably our ability to respect the sovereignty of other countries and to limit our incursions into somebody else’s territory is enhanced by the fact that we are able to pin-point strike an al-Qaeda operative...
That doesn't mean that we shouldn’t be careful about how we proceed on this... Obviously I’m looking forward to a time where al-Qaeda is no longer an operative network... I think we are on the offence now, al-Qaeda has been really weakened, but we've still got a little more work to do, and we've got to make sure that were using all our capacities in order to deal with it." Jan. 30, 2012 Barack Obama
Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, stated the following during the Oct. 22, 2012 presidential debate in Boca Raton, FL, available at www.abcnews.go.com:
"Well I believe we should use any and all means necessary to take out people who pose a threat to us and our friends around the world. And it's widely reported that drones are being used in drone strikes, and I support that and entirely, and feel the president was right to up the usage of that technology, and believe that we should continue to use it, to continue to go after the people that represent a threat to this nation and to our friends." Oct. 22, 2012 Mitt Romney
Jill Stein, MD, former Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, stated the following on Oct. 22, 2012 during Democracy Now's expanded presidential debate, "Expanding the Presidential Debate on Foreign Policy," available at YouTube.com:
"No matter who is in the oval office, if it’s not one of us, we need to be out on the street, even if there is someone with a D on his shirt who is continuing these wars, who is continuing the drone wars which we have just been told are about to expand into North Africa now as well under the auspices of the CIA that has requested a major expansion in drone capacity...
We need to be standing up and demanding the kind of foreign policy we deserve that is a foreign policy based on international law and human rights. The drone wars are dreadful, it’s said that they are actually hitting about 2% of their victims in fact are thought to be key operatives within al-Qaeda or associated groups, so the vast majority of the people being killed are not significant operatives. So when Barack Obama talks about creating coalitions with Yemen and Somalia, whatever his coalitions are doing, unfortunately they are vastly overwhelmed by what his drones are doing because we are seeing, in fact, people being driven into the camp of the avowed enemies of the United States because of the impact of these drone wars. So, they need to be put to an end." Oct. 22, 2012 Jill Stein
Failed to win the Republican nomination on Aug. 28, 2012; No additional research done as of that date to determine candidate’s position on this question.