Drone Strikes Claim America’s Best, and Worst: Our View

Islamic militants in Pakistan regularly prey on civilians who are trying to help ordinary Pakistanis, probably because they're the softest of soft targets.

On Thursday, President Obama revealed that the contractor, 73-year-old Warren Weinstein, was killed along with an Italian aid worker in what government sources said was a U.S. drone strike in January.

There are important things to say about how that happened, but first it's worth pausing to honor the work done by people like Weinstein. They work in dangerous places far from home, driven by a dedication to making the world a better place.

In announcing the deaths of Weinstein and Giovanni Lo Porto, 39, Obama apologized for the tragedy. The house where the two were held had been under CIA surveillance for weeks as an al-Qaeda meeting place, but the agency never learned that the hostages were inside.

The government also disclosed Thursday attacks had killed two other Americans of a very different sort. Ahmed Farouq and Adam Gadahn were both al-Qaeda operatives. One died in the strike that claimed Weinstein and Lo Porto, the other separately.

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What is not widely known is that strikes have fallen sharply since their peak in 2010, when drones attacked targets in Pakistan alone 117 times, according to the Long War Journal. The Pakistan count fell to 24 last year and five so far this year.

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