Obama Drones Speech: Drones are Effective

President Obama claims that the context for drone strikes is the new face of terrorism that "hides in caves and trains in empty deserts."

According to President Obama, the drone strikes are an alternative to the kinds of militaristic strategies that included the Navy Seal Team Six deployment that killed Osama bin Laden.

President Obama defended drone strikes as legal and moral, and having saved lives of many Americans. He claimed that the attack on the U.S. on 9/11 established a framework of military actions that allow for drone strikes.

However he acknowledged that the strikes could also allow for the indiscriminate nature of the strikes. He said that beyond the Afghan theater the use of strikes is "heavily constrained" and does not take strikes wherever it chooses. The preference is to detain and prosecute, and not as a punishment or retaliation for terrorism.