orwell prize

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David Aaronovitch gives his argument for the use of drone warfare. Facebook @ http://fb.me/theoxfordunion Twitter @ http://www.twitter.com/OxfordUnion Oxford Union Website @ http://www.oxford-union.org/ David Aaronovitch begins by saying that for everything the opposition says on the detrimental nature of drone warfare and the ineffectiveness it has on counteracting terrorism they have put forward no argument on any alternatives to drone warfare by way of which they are ultimately saying the solution is to do nothing. He proceeds to list a number of high-ranking Al Qaeda members that have been killed by drone strikes since 2005. He says that high numbers of the organisation Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, who are responsible for the bombing of shia mosques, have been successfully taken out by drone strikes. He raises the point that the Pakistani government took less resistance with the Pakistani Taliban over the issue of the Pakistani province of Swat. When taking the province back along with Islamabad and Karachi the government made 900K people homeless with dozens killed in the process and is a perfect example of how the Pakistani government looks one way and speaks another. He ends by saying that what this argument boils down to is whether the world would be better or worse without drones and he conclude that it would be worse. Filmed on Thursday 25th April 2013 MOTION: THIS HOUSE BELIEVES DRONE WARFARE IS ETHICAL AND EFFECTIVE ABOUT DAVID AARONOVITCH: David Aaronovitch is a British author, broadcaster, and journalist. He is a regular columnist for The Times, and author of Paddling to Jerusalem: An Aquatic Tour of Our Small Country (2000) and Voodoo Histories: the role of Conspiracy Theory in Modern History (2009). He won the Orwell Prize for political journalism in 2001, and the What the Papers Say "Columnist of the Year" award for 2003. ABOUT THE OXFORD UNION SOCIETY: The Union is the world's most prestigious debating society, with an unparalleled reputation for bringing international guests and speakers to Oxford. It has been established for 189 years, aiming to promote debate and discussion not just in Oxford University, but across the globe.