“This is Global War on Terror spending. We’re still stuck in this post-September 11 mindset. You know, people often criticize, “Oh, you’re stuck in pre-9/11 thinking”. No, we’re stuck in post-9/11 thinking where the entire framework of what we’re doing in our foreign policy and in our defense spending was set up by George W. Bush.

[snip]

Rather than repeating one of thwe most horrible foreign policy mistakes in history than invading Iraq of Afghanistan again, yes, it’s better to just do remote-controlled drone strikes. That being said, is it moral? Right? And what I’ve said before, and I think this is true, it’s a morally indefensible program 98% percent of the time. And it’s perhaps—but it’s politically defensible, right? Because no one in America really cares that these people are being, you know, blown up on a regular basis, it’s a sort of faceless enemy, it seems like we’re doing a good thing, you know, Democrats love it because the drone issue polls really well, so it’s a win across the board until you get to the blow-back point where you’ve killed so many innocent people that in fact you’re just prolonging this conflict forever.”

— Michael Hastings