Strikes by Drones: Better to Capture Than to Kill?

In “Where To From Here?” (Week in Review, May 9), you pose a vital policy question: Is the Obama administration’s heavy reliance on drone strike attacks against the Taliban leadership in Pakistan and Afghanistan inspiring more attacks on America than they prevent?

But there is another downside to a policy based on drone strikes aside from engendering more recruits for the global jihad movement: the loss of intelligence from assassinated Taliban and Qaeda leaders.

With a growing nexus between American citizens and terrorist groups in Pakistan, the United States needs all the information it can muster on the nature of these links, including recruitment practices, training methods and possible future plots.

The Obama administration needs to begin placing a greater priority on capturing and interrogating senior Taliban and Qaeda leaders, rather than executing them.
NYT

So much for your lily pads