What the Toll of Drones Looks Like, in Just One Country
Drone attacks in countries like Pakistan have become an increasingly controversial (if accepted) and no less common (if transferred) reality — Pakistani officials reported another one by U.S. missile fire just this weekend. So what do all of the strikes look like broken down by the available data, even if many strikes in the U.S. targeted killing program go unreported? That's what Pitch Interactive attempts to represent with their new graphic, "Out of Sight, Out of Mind." Using data primarily from the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, the graphic charts every drone strike it can inside Pakistan since 2004. Within that chart Pitch highlights who was killed in the strike: how many children, civilians, high profile targets, and "others." Pitch defines the "other" category as such:
The category of victims we call “OTHER” is classified differently depending on the source. The Obama administration classifies any able-bodied male a military combatant unless evidence is brought forward to prove otherwise. This is a very grey area for us. These could be neighbors of a target killed. They may all be militants and a threat.
Pitch Interactive says that the graphic is not designed "to speak for or against" the use of drones, but the data itself can be striking. Take for instance an attack in October 2006 that killed 69 children—represented in bright red.
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The graphic can be oriented on a horizontal timeline, or on a setting dedicated to portraying the victims of the attacks:
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