Drones, the C.I.A., and Pakistan

Bush oversaw forty-eight drone strikes in Pakistan during his two terms. Since 2009, Obama as authorized more than three hundred. In Mazetti’s telling, CIA leaders repeatedly pushed Obama for more expansive authority to used armed drones. They got their way in almost every instance.  …

Munter soon discovered that, under President Obama, “it was what the C.I.A. believed that really counted.”   …

Today, the United States has surpassed India as the most hated nation in Pakistan. There are many causes, but drones are a major one.

— Steve Coll in the New Yorker, May 6, 2013