Joe Klein To 'Morning Joe' On Drones: 'The Bottom Line Is, Whose Four-Year-Old Gets Killed?'

Published on 23-Oct-2012 on Huffington Post 

"Morning Joe" aired an extremely impassioned discussion about drone strikes on Tuesday morning between Joe Scarborough and Time columnist Joe Klein.

The subject arose out of Monday night's presidential debate. Panelist John Heilemann noted that moderator Bob Schieffer had asked Mitt Romney if he supported President Obama's drone strike policy. Romney said he did, and the discussion moved on.

"This policy really deserves more scrutiny and public debate," Heilemann said.

"Oh my God, yeah!" Scarborough interjected. He then said he would be glad to offer some scrutiny.
"If you're between 17 and 30, and within a half-mile of a suspect, we can blow you up, and that's exactly what's happening," Scarborough said. "...They are focused on killing the bad guys, but it is indiscriminate as to other people who are around them at the same time."

"I have to completely disagree with you," Klein said. "Well then you don't know what's been going on," Scarborough said.

Klein said the program had been "remarkably successful" at killing "bad people" and "saving American lives."

"You don't need pilots any more because you do it with a joystick in California," he added.

"This is offensive to me, though," Scarborough said. "It seems so antiseptic. It seems so clean. And yet you have four-year-old girls being blown to bits ... this is going to cause the U.S. problems in the future."

"The bottom line in the end is whose four-year-old gets killed?" Klein responded.
"Does that matter?" Scarborough said.

"What we're doing is limiting the possibility that four-year-olds here will get killed by indiscriminate acts of terror," Klein concluded.