By The Numbers

U.S. Military Drone Strikes, 2008 - 2020

In May of 2012, The New York Times uncovered a story in which certain discrepancies were reported in casualty statistics measured from drone activity under the Obama White House. The controversial methodology for official counts of deaths is reported to be as follows:

"It in effect counts all military-age males in a strike zone as combatants, according to several administration officials, unless there is explicit intelligence posthumously proving them innocent," the [New York Times] reports. "Counter-terrorism officials insist this approach is one of simple logic: people in an area of known terrorist activity, or found with a top Qaeda operative, are probably up to no good."

As the conflict continued in the Middle East, reporting figures on death by drone strikes, especially as they pertained to civilians and children, became skewed and often left us with a range of values to guess. The reporting itself was part of a 2016 Obama EO in efforts to increase transparency around controversial military engagements; [the EO] required the head of the CIA (affecting first John Brennan, then Mike Pompeo, then Gina Haspel) to release annual summaries of US drone strikes and resulting casualty figures. Then, in 2018, the Trump administration pulled the EO altogether, ending drone strike casualty reporting. The BBC reported that Trump's executive order does not overturn reporting requirements on civilian deaths set for the military by Congress, but still has the capacity to hamper the publication of such figures.

Below is a rough breakdown of the figures: