Drone expert Alyssa Sims joins Scott to talk about the strikes in Libya and the difficulty in getting accurate estimates of civilian casualties. She explains that in some cases researchers have to resort to finding pictures of dead bodies on social media and cross-referencing the posts with times and locations of known drone strikes. Sims also discusses the unintended consequences from the UN intervention in Libya, supposedly to help the civilian victims of Gaddafi’s tyranny—but of course, once the Libyan leader was ousted warring militias, now armed with U.S. and UN weapons, fought each other for control. The resulting power vacuum has been worse in many ways than Gaddafi’s rule was in the first place.
Discussed on the show:

• “Airstrikes and Civilian Casualties in Libya Since the 2011 NATO Intervention” (New America)
• “The U.S. Has Conducted 550 Drone Strikes in Libya Since 2011 — More Than in Somalia, Yemen, or Pakistan” (Intercept)
• Africom

Alyssa Sims is a Policy Analyst for New America, and has been published in CNN, PBS Newshour, and the New Yorker. Read her work at NewAmerica.org and follow her on Twitter @AGSims1.
This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: Zen Cash; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Roberts and Roberts Brokerage Inc.; NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; LibertyStickers.com; and ExpandDesigns.com/Scott.
Check out Scott’s Patreon page.

Podcast (thescotthortonshow): Play in new window | Download