U.S. Drone Kills Two Hostages

http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/23/politics/white-house-hostages-killed/?iid=ob_article_topstories_pool&iref=obnetwork
President Obama announced Thursday that two innoncent hostages were killed in January by a U.S. drone targeting an al Qaeda compound. President Obama took full responsibility for what happened and apologized on behalf of the U.S. government. The two hostages were Warren Weinstein, an American, and Italian national Giovanni Lo Porto. Two other American citizens that are al Qaeda operatives were also killed in the same region by U.S. counterterrorism attacks. American officials at the time had no reason to believe either hostage was present. They had the compound under surveillance for hours and had saw no hostages. Unfortunately that assesment was incorrect and led to this tragedy. White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said, "No words can fully express our regret over this terrible tragedy." The death of the hostages raises questions as to whether protocol has to be improved before launching an attack. Weistein was an American USAID worker focused on helping Pakistani families and was captured in August 2011. Lo Porto was an Italian aid worker who had been a hostage since 2012. Weinstein's wife says they are devastated by the news but ultimately Weinstein's captors are responsible for his death. The information was classified and Obama decided to go public with the information because he believed the families had the right to know the truth. Earnest assured that all the attacks were legal and autorized and Obama still stands by the counterterrorism attacks even though they have been criticized for their drone attacks and killing civilians. I believe we need to review and revise our counterterrorism program. We need to have precise attacks that take out the terrorists and not anymore civilians. I don't think we need to stay involved for much longer. If we don't get out of there soon we are going to be there forever. We need to put it into the hands of the Pakistani government.