More U.S. Citizens Have Been Killed by a Drone Strike Than by Ebola
It's an epidemic—killing hundreds of thousands of people and leaving many others hospitalized. It's present in over 148 countries and has expanded out of control. I'm talking not about Ebola, but the U.S. government. The very entity that many turn to for protection has been responsible for wars, police shootings, withholding of drugs that could save lives, and many other acts of violence and negligence that have resulted in far more deaths than Ebola.
More U.S. citizens (4) have died from Obama's drone strikes than from Ebola (1). Bush's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan took more American lives (6,802, just counting troops) than all Ebola deaths (4,555) worldwide. The threat presented by Ebola should in no way be downplayed, but it is time Americans focus on the dangers of the U.S. foreign policy.

Note: This post has been edited to clarify language about the relative dangers posed by Ebola and the U.S. government.
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I agree with Keisling. Drone attacks on the Ebola infected before they spread it everywhere!
You're not helping.
What is the CDC doing about his drone epidemic?
Less than they are doing about the epidemic of police-involved fatal shootings.
Why do people love these idiotic fallacies so much? Twenty years ago no American citizens had been killed by drone strikes. By this logic anyone who was concerned about the development of drones and the need to fight terrorism leading to American citizens being killed via drone would not have had a point. No, the past is only a predictor of the future until it isn't. The fact that only one American has as of yet died of Ebola says little or nothing about the threat of Ebola going forward.
And when you touch a drone, you don't turn into an exploding 250-lb small diameter bomb.
"Show us on the Revell model where the drone touched you, John...."
*Why do people love these idiotic fallacies so much?*
This is the same website that says people who wander into ISIS territory basically deserve to get beheaded, but Americans who willingly join Al-Queda in Yemen don't deserve to get drone striked.
I had such high hopes when I first found this place, thinking that this would be a good place of refuge from the idiocy of the two party system--so sad to have those hopes dashed with this continual stupidity and UNreason.
This, though maybe it is just one guy.
Maybe. We can only hope. But since we refuse to ban travel from the area or enforce a quarantine on doctors returning from there, it seems pretty likely that we will keep getting cases.
Even if you won't ban travel, how can they not quarantine doctors returning from the infected areas? This guy was over there treating Ebola and flew back and rode the subway and acted like he was just coming back from a vacation in Europe. Is our government just suicidal?
They won't do travel bans or quarantines for the same reason they frisk old ladies and infants in the airport.
Frisk grandma and harass the shit out of her but that Liberian guy over there throwing up make sure he gets on the plane.
Yep. Don't want to appear racist.
I was referring to my typo in the comment above, where I used "his drone epidemic" rather than "this drone epidemic."
Not sure about the rest of it. Seems a little odd that they aren't doing more to quarantine the disease.
Even if you won't ban travel, how can they not quarantine doctors returning from the infected areas?
No shit. I'm not normally a "Secure the Borders!" type, but the fact that nobody seems to think twice about a doctor coming back from an assignment treating Ebola patients just wandering around New York like it's no big deal... fuck.
This perpetual clown show usually doesn't cause me anything except extreme aggravation and loss of income, but I think they're creating risk of a no-fooling epidemic. "I told you so" is going to be damn little consolation.
I can't imagine getting much satisfaction from mumbling "you retarded fuckers killed me" as I die in a pool of my own blood and vomit.
We live in a country where large numbers of "educated" and "smart" and well off people don't believe in vaccines anymore. We don't stand a chance against a real pandemic.
The only solace I take is that maybe it will kill off more of the stupid than the smart and help the gene pool a bit. Honest to God I could see this shit getting lose in some African or other minority community and a bunch of retarded Progs deciding it was racist to avoid the area and of course getting themselves infected.
You are entirely too hysterical about Ebola, and your proposed policies, according to everyone knowledgeable on the subject, would only make the problem worse. Unless you think the problem is that too many Liberians are still alive.
'Tony' bringing the stupid.
It's his only skill. Gotta stick with what you know.
We have a deadly infectious disease that is known to infect medical workers treating it. And Tony actually thinks quarantining doctors who return form Africa after treating Ebola should not be quarantined, because that is what his political leaders told him.
I am not kidding when I say this could end up disproportionately killing the stupid. Do you honestly think someone like Tony, and there are millions out there just like him, is capable of thinking on his own or taking precautions without being told to do so? Hell, Tony would be out drinking the vomit of infected people if the government told him to do it.
I'm just going by John's earlier genocidal comments. Okay, I'll be charitable and say eugenic.
I wasn't talking about quarantining doctors but your obsession with a travel ban. Or have you moved on? How wonderful it must be to be a conservative. I agonize over every time I was wrong about something, sometimes for years. You guys just frolic over to the next thing you're wrong about, like the last one never happened.
I wasn't talking about quarantining doctors but your obsession with a travel ban.
Experts say that it will be ineffective. Experts! Where's your PhD in public policy from, smart guy? THESE PEOPLE ARE EXPERTS!!1!!!!!!1!1!
I agonize over every time I was wrong about something, sometimes for years.
It's great that you mitigate this problem by refusing to accept when you're wrong and conducting such mental gymnastics to avoid admitting as much that an honest person's head would explode if they attempted them. You truly are a national treasure. Don't ever change.
..."I agonize over every time I was wrong about something, sometimes for years."...
In which case, you wouldn't have time to eat dinner.
Meanwhile, Tony still can't bring himself to admit that Rosa Parks had the right to sit in the front of a public bus.
Meanwhile, Tony still can't bring himself to admit that Jewish people had a right to their own lives during the holocaust.
...all because he can't bring himself to admit that our rights come from somewhere other than government.
Tony is a sick puppy.
So where do they come from?
Tony|10.24.14 @ 12:08PM|#
"So where do they come from?"
Irrelevant.
What is relevant is that you, OTOH, have to defend the holocaust for your view to hold.
Let's hear it, dipshit.
He's already admitted it!
He certainly doesn't deny it.
And why would he?
He's made his case numerous times.
It's all in the archives.
Suffice it to say, when Tony is confronted with his disgusting holocaust beliefs or his racist position on Rosa Parks, he doesn't deny that those are his beliefs.
He insists that you challenge them--because he thinks you can't!
Why can't you say where they come from if it's so simple?
People disagree. Some people say they come from the social contract, some people say they come from natural rights. I'm partial to the idea that they're an evolutionary social adaptation like language. Regardless, if I wake up and find a present under my Christmas tree come December, just because I'm not sure exactly who (or where) it came from doesn't mean it doesn't exist.
You, on the other hand, conceding that you disgusting and racist positions naturally follow from the premise that our rights only exist insofar as they come from government exposes you, once again, as morally bankrupt and without principles or scruples. It's a perfect demonstration of why no one respects anything you have to say. This is why you're a laughingstock, Tony.
You talk about the deep regret you have for you positions in the past, and yet you still won't admit that people have rights independent of government, not even to avoid supporting the holocaust or arresting Rosa Parks! Maybe the reason everybody laughs at you is so they won't start crying--it's hard for people to accept that segregationists and holocaust apologizers like you are really possible.
So they come from God. Yeah, that's where they've always come from according to natural right's philosophers. God or something like him (including asinine crap about how they inevitably derive from pure logic). That's not adequate for me.
But this is not as big a deal as you make it out to be. You say rights exist, I say that *should* exist. It's a matter of whether people are actually able to enjoy the right. That is what concerns me. Rosa Parks *should* have had the right she was denied. I think standing at the bus stop lecturing about natural rights is an inefficient means of actually making them real.
"So they come from God. Yeah, that's where they've always come from according to natural right's philosophers. God or something like him (including asinine crap about how they inevitably derive from pure logic). That's not adequate for me."
If you're so pathetic, you won't admit that Rosa Parks had the right to sit in the front of a public bus or that Jews had a right to their lives during the holocaust, why would anyone care about what's adequate for you?
"Rosa Parks *should* have had the right she was denied. I think standing at the bus stop lecturing about natural rights is an inefficient means of actually making them real."
If you're incapable of even acknowledging that Rosa Parks' rights were violated by the government, why would anyone care about what you think is real?
You're deliberately pretending not to understand what I'm saying. Not that this debate had a point before, but that's not playing nice.
Tony
"I agonize over every time I was wrong about something, sometimes for years. "
Gee. What a wretched and pittyful life you must lead.
Tony how old were you when your father abandoned you/your family ?
How would a quarantine or travel restriction make the problem worse? I know that's what the Top Men have said, but why do you think it's true?
They're weighing the idea of quarantining doctors returning from West Africa. It might be too much if it discourages doctors from going there, but I'm not taking it off the table.
And the top men have explained why a travel ban is counterproductive. Google it and read. Why do you think it would make the problem better? You have any top men on your side or do you take it as a point in your favor that no experts agree with you?
The Ebola Song
ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUB44ltVJCA
"Maybe. We can only hope. But since we refuse to ban travel from the area or enforce a quarantine on doctors returning from there, it seems pretty likely that we will keep getting cases.
Even if you won't ban travel, how can they not quarantine doctors returning from the infected areas? This guy was over there treating Ebola and flew back and rode the subway and acted like he was just coming back from a vacation in Europe. Is our government just suicidal?"
this is perilously close to RAAAAAAAYCISM!!!!
Yo,Jason! At last, some rational words on Ebola in Reason!
Gee Venneman believes the logical fallacy. Let me get my surprised face.
You're still spelling your name wrong
+1 Jhon
So if it's true that "more Americans die from obesity (or smoking, or whatever) than from Ebola," is the CDC justified in expanding its mission?
Absolutely.
"The Centers for Disease Control *and Prevention*" should be putting up signs in subways, distributing respirators, studying eugenics -- whatever it takes.
Silly libertarians. You're an American citizen that gets killed by a drone strike if your join up with al Qaeda or, these days, ISIS. (Although one of the four killed in a drone strike might not have been that bad, so let's call it a tie for now). Sane people think that's a pretty good reason. The fear of ebola is that it can get out of hand and kill many Americans that do not join Dark Age organizations with the stated goal of inflicting as many American deaths as they're able to get away with.
Go fuck yourself.
Okay, so if your dad joins up and you are hanging out with his buddies in Yemen. I am pretty sure that isn't much of a danger to most Americans.
Whatever you think of the drone issue, it has nothing to do with Ebola. This post is moronic. We have a potential pandemic going on and Reason's response is "hey only one person in this country has died, so why worry?"
You do realize how stupid that is don't you?
Sins of the father, eh?
Are you suggesting that there is no possibility of Abdulrahman having being coerced into accompanying his father to Yemen? For fuck's sake, John, the government, in an uncharacteristic display of transparency, has admitted that the kid has no connection to terrorism and that his killing was in error.
What you've just wrote is that he deserved to die anyway;,because he had a shitty father.
You do realize how evil that is, don't you?
As for the rest, that has nothing to do the OP of Deputy VH.
I don't care if Obama shot him during a card game in the basement of the White House because he didn't bring him the right drink. His killing has nothing to do with Ebola. The US has done a lot of bad things over the years. And those are well bad things. But the fact that they happened says nothing about the actual threat of Ebola.
I don't understand why you think Ebola somehow justifies whatever rant you want to have about Drones. If you want to debate drones, feel free. I have criticized Obama for the Al Walaki thing many times on here. And I will again. That just has nothing to do with Ebola. That is my point.
I've made this argument before, and I like bashing Obama--at least--as much as the next libertarian, but...
The president has an authorization from Congress to go after the organization that perpetrated 9/11. If you join that organization (and start doing their recruiting for them), then I don't see where being an American citizen protects you.
If some American joined the Nazi party during World War II, was accepted into the leadership and started operating against the United States in the war, does anyone imagine that wouldn't make him a legitimate target?
Like I said, if you don't want to be targeted by a drone strike because you joined Al Qaeda and started recruiting more terrorists and enjoining them to attack the United States--while the president has an open ended authorization to go after any Al Qaeda operatives anywhere in the world?
Then there's an easy way to avoid that.
Ultimately, though, I don't think this greenhorn is trying to make drone strikes look more ominous by way of comparison to Ebola. I think he's trying to make Ebola look like less of a threat by comparing it to drone strikes. It's just a swing and a miss.
Is anybody editing these posts for content before they're posted anymore?
Well, if my dad were hanging out with a bunch of terrorists, I would know there's a risk that I would be killed because of my asshole father. That's on him, and perhaps on me for being putting myself in that situation. Kind of like attacking a police officer.
And the friggin' article attempts to make some moral or logical comparison between ebola and drone strikes. Don't want to get called out on it, don't write it.
It's unreasonable to expect the military not to go after military targets for fear hitting ANY unintended targets.
The only way to make sure no unintended targets are ever hurt is to never fire a weapon.
The point is that you make a target of yourself and your family when you join Al Qaeda and start working for them. If you don't want you and your family to become a target, then don't join the enemy and don't work in trying to help them harm the United States--especially when the president has congressional authorization to target you.
"If you don't want you and your family to become a target, then don't join the enemy and don't work in trying to help them harm the United States--especially when the president has congressional authorization to target you."
Notice this is in direct contrast to Ebola, where whether I'm subjected to an epidemic may or may not have anything to do with my personal choices.
In fact, I've got the CDC refusing to restrict flights from West Africa because making it harder to get people out of West Africa will make it harder to fight Ebola in Africa.
http://online.wsj.com/articles.....1413502475
That's the bureaucrat's choices that are putting me at risk--not mine.
Yeah, at SIXTEEN you would have run away from your father's associates in that situation. Sixteen year olds airways do what's reasonable and worldly in most situations.
Because, naturally, the inevitable death that rains from the sky on your American citizen head while you're sitting in a cafe not being a threat to anybody in a place not associated with terrorist activity is your fault, otherwise.
Do you actually believe this fascist shit, or are you a shill?
*always
Damn this site's commenting system.
I said that there was one that was maybe not that bad, but even then these stories they come up with turn out to be the same as "gentle giants" and the like.
And perhaps you can go look at the other three people that were killed by drone strikes. Very, very bad people.
A stupid article and stupid comparison.
I appreciate that you're trying to emphasize what a danger our anti-terrorism tactics are, but it just comes off like you're trying to minimize the threat of Ebola.
Oh, and incidentally, the War on Terror presents more serious threats to our civil rights than it threatens to have any of us killed in a drone strike. Why minimize the threat to our civil rights like that?
Also, the chances of me being subjected to a warrantless search are much greater than my chances of being targeted with a drone strike, and, by the way, the chances of me catching Ebola are greater than they are of me being targeted with a drone strike, too.
The threat of me being subjected to a drone strike is more or less under my control. If you don't want to be targeted by a drone strike for joining Al Qaeda and actively recruiting more members, there's an easy way to avoid that. If I don't want to be subjected to an Ebola epidemic, in the future, what am I supposed to do? Trust Obama and his CDC to do what's in my best interests?
Last I heard, Obama thinks I'm being selfish. Last I heard, bringing Ebola patients here by the plane load for treatment was an option the Obama Administration was fighting hard to keep open.
I thought the dead guy in Dallas was a Liberian citizen who arrived on a visa to visit family, and not a US citizen.
I could be wrong, of course.
You are correct.
Correct about the person in Dallas, but an American citizen died of Ebola in Nigeria. http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/29/.....ican-dies/
Just another reason Cosmotarian who hates America and wants to see the country overrun by mongrel Mohammedans who clean pools for fifty cents a day.
Ebola is a Muslim?
The bogeyman is only somebody else's problem until he's under YOUR bed!
Meanwhile, from comments from the head of the CDC, it looks like they don't want to ban travel from West Africa because they want to keep the option open to fly Ebola patients here to the United States for treatment by the plane load.
Or, as the CDC head put it, (and I'm paraphrasing a little here), ...
You man not like it, but the best way to stop Ebola from getting here is to stop the pandemic in Africa.
...that was in response to the question of why we weren't banning flights from Africa. From what he said, the biggest reason why we aren't flying Ebola patients here by the plane load is because of all the people "overreacting" to what's already happening now.
The best way to stop Ebola from getting here is to bring it over here.
Oh my lord, do bureaucrats take special classes for such absurd logic or are they born with it?
Read this double-talk by Dr. Frieden, the head of the CDC:
"Dr. Frieden replied that limiting travel between African nations would slow relief efforts. "If we isolate these countries, what's not going to happen is disease staying there. It's going to spread more all over Africa and we'll be at higher risk."
Later in the interview, Ms. Kelly noted that we still have airplanes coming into the U.S. from Liberia, with passengers expected to self-report Ebola exposure.
Dr. Frieden responded: "Ultimately the only way?and you may not like this?but the only way we will get our risk to zero here is to stop the outbreak in Africa."
Ms. Kelly said yes, that's why we're sending troops. But why can't we do that and have a travel ban?
"If it spreads more in Africa, it's going to be more of a risk to us here. Our only goal is protecting Americans?that's our mission. We do that by protecting people here and by stopping threats abroad. That protects Americans."
http://online.wsj.com/articles.....1413502475
What I read from that statement--and it's all in response to the question of why we don't have a travel ban--is that he wants to bring African patients here for treatment. He wants to do that to stop the epidemic in Africa--because stopping the epidemic in Africa will ultimately protect Americans from a greater threat of an epidemic.
In other words, bringing Ebola patients here to the U.S. for treatment--in a controlled way--might subject us to a relatively lower risk of an epidemic here than leaving those Ebola patients in Africa, letting the epidemic spread, and it eventually coming here to the United States in an uncontrolled way.
I do not want the CDC playing the percentages like this with my life.
If we had a vaccine or cure, it might make sense. But we're just exposing more people and spreading healthcare resources to the limit.
I'm not even thinking about me or anyone I know, it probably, hopefully won't reach the midwest where I live. But it's utterly fucked up that our government is so cavalier about exposing our health workers and anyone else who didn't willingly go to Africa. It's almost as bad as sending troops into an unwanted war. But they're welcoming an invasion here.
I suspect Obama thinks we're being racist and insensitive to the problems of the poor by leaving Africa to suffer Ebola alone.
I suspect Obama thinks that because I care more about myself than I do about other people, that this makes me selfish and wrong.
However, I think the primary job of the president is to protect the American people from threats like Ebola--and if this President is consciously putting American lives at risk of an epidemic for the benefit of West Africans, then I think Barack Obama is a traitor.
Do you disagree that the only way to reduce risk to Americans to zero is to contain the epidemic at its source?
I agree that bringing planeloads of Ebola patients puts us at greater risk of an epidemic in the short run--regardless of what happens in the long run--and that the long run happens after the short run.
Do you have any reason to believe that bringing patients here in the short run will diminish our risks over the long run--other than because the Obama Administration says so?
I have reason to believe that bringing such a large number of Ebola patients here would entail significant risks, given that the disease is highly transmissible, even in a hospital setting with trained professionals.
Patients treated here have a significantly increased chance of surviving and not transmitting the disease. I don't see how you can conclude that it's better for us to have more people dying and transmitting the disease.
United States, water, water, water, water, water, water, water, water, water, water, water, Africa.
Doctors in airplanes, which fly over water.
Is that fucking simple enough for you to understand Tony?
So we shouldn't be sending doctors to Liberia?
"So we shouldn't be sending doctors to Liberia?"
Idiot. Nobody is saying we "shouldn't be sending doctors to Liberia". We're saying that after a doctor has been potentially exposed to one of the deadliest diseases on the planet, they should be quarantined PRIOR to being allowed to mingle with the rest of us. The doctor volunteered. We didn't.
Tony, you cannot possibly be this stupid. The only way to reduce the risk to Americans from ebola to zero, is to reduce their risk of being exposed to it to zero, and you can't do that by bringing it here.
^This is what 'Tony' really believes.
Since I don't have enough room in my brain to think about both drone strikes and Ebola, thank goodness for Reason telling me which one isn't worth my severely limited mental capacity.
That is right. And of course it is impossible for threats to be of varying levels of seriousness and be completely unrelated to one another. If something is less of a worry than drone strikes, then you just shouldn't worry your little head about it.
Also, I like how this sentence "it is time Americans focus on clear and present dangers." was preceded by statistics on "Bush's wars".
Did one of our trolls write that? Will that Bush NEVER leave office?
Yeah. And Even the Al Alwalaki killing happened what? Four years ago. As awful as Obama was for doing that, he seems not to have made a habit of it. Yet somehow him doing it again and to an American on US soil is a "clear and present danger" but Ebola isn't.
What the hell is wrong with Reason?
5,000 American children die every year falling off of furniture. I think we have a lot more to fear from bunk beds than we do from drone attacks.
This is true for now, the question is how long will it be true.
"More U.S. Citizens Have Been Killed by a Drone Strike Than by Ebola"
Ah, but more US citizens have been killed by illegal aliens than by drone strikes.
See what happens when you let idiots play with logic, Reason(sic)?
I think it is vastly more relevant, and entertaining, that more people have been married to Kim Kardashian than have died of Ebola.
The Left won't touch the war issue with a ten-foot pole. At least, not unless a Republican is in power.
I would know. I made the mistake of monitoring a bunch of idiot celebrities' tweets during one of the 2012 presidential debates. Essentially a cabal of morons with no understanding of the issues who spent the entire evening kissing Obama's posterior and bashing Romney. When the two agreed on drone strikes, I didn't hear one peep from the Hollywood elite criticizing Obama.
More people have been killed by cancer than by US foreign policy, therefore we needn't concern ourselves with US foreign policy.
The threat presented by US foreign policy should in no way be downplayed, but it is time Americans focus on the dangers of cancer.
OK, so can I write for Reason now?
How many US citizens were killed by Ebola?
I get it.. not that many people die from Ebola. Is that a reason not to be cautious?
A travel ban needed to be put in place yesterday. Unfortunately, Obama and Co. want to keep bringing these vessels in (along with the Ebola patients on board). I don't understand their reasons, and I don't think most Americans do either.
To me, it seems like Obama is more concerned with looking politically correct than stopping the spread of Ebola. Banning flights is racist. Closing our borders is racist. Quarantining Africans is SUPER racist. Obama - this one is on you!
Hey Obama - You allowed ISIS to flourish. You picked a senseless fight with Russia. You ruined health insurance. My health insurance is up to $450/month from just $200/month. My car insurance is currently only $25/month (from Insurance Panda), but who knows when Obama will try to step in and create socialized car insurance. Our country is doomed.
Ebola needs to be stopped, and for that to happen, Obama needs to go.
my co-worker's mother makes $71 /hr on the laptop . She has been unemployed for 9 months but last month her payment was $17334 just working on the laptop for a few hours. published here
----------------http://shorx.com/onlineatm
This is so true!
my co-worker's mother makes $71 /hr on the laptop . She has been unemployed for 9 months but last month her payment was $17334 just working on the laptop for a few hours. published here
----------------http://shorx.com/onlineatm
This is in the running for most moronic thing I've ever read on Reason.
Why is it so hard for some people to understand that the risks from infectious diseases are not the same as those from lightning strikes, shark attacks, drones or any other unrelated hazard? Infectious diseases can spread exponentially and kill LOTS of people in a short period of time if not contained. The influenza pandemic of a hundred years ago killed between 50 and 100 million people. That was about 5% of the global population. The small pox epidemic that the Europeans unwittingly brought to the Western Hemisphere five hundred years ago may have killed half the native population or more.
Can you have some spare time to sit back in your chair having your laptop with you and making some money online for some interesting online work said Jenny Francis in the party last nightsee more what is for you there to increase your pocket money??.
http://shorx.com/clickforsurvey