“Ninja Guys in Black Suits”: Alternative Counterterrorism Tools, 1993–2008

This chapter talks about the issue of why the Obama administration adopted drone strikes as America's primary counterterrorism tool. By examining the methods applied by Obama's predecessors, such as the deployment of proxy agents; cruise missile strikes; rendition, imprisonment, and interrogation; and Special Forces raids, the chapter places this decision in context. It illustrates the extent to which the adoption of different counterterrorism policies from president to president has as much to do with the successes and failures of their predecessors' efforts as it does the ideological outlook of the policy makers themselves. The chapter also analyzes the impact of wider factors on influencing policy decisions; such as the American public's fatigue over foreign occupations, the financial limitations imposed by a decade of nation building, and the advent of new technological innovations.