A majority of Americans support drone strikes on terrorist organizations abroad.
Nearly three-quarters of Americans say it is acceptable for the United States to carry out a drone strike abroad to kill an American citizen if that person has joined a terrorist organization, according to a new Associated Press-GfK poll.
Six in 10 Americans also support the use of drones to target terrorists in general. Only 13 percent oppose drone usage, compared to 24 percent who don’t feel strongly either way.
However, less than half of Americans (47 percent) think it is acceptable to use drones against terrorists abroad if innocent Americans might be killed while doing so.
More than four in 10 (43 percent) of those who said they favor using drones — or didn’t have an opinion on using them — said it is unacceptable to use drones if innocent Americans might be killed.
Overall, targeted killing with drones garners bipartisan support — roughly six in 10 Democrats favor using drones against known terrorists, while roughly seven in 10 Republicans support this. Only 16 percent and 10 percent are opposed, respectively. Independents are more torn, with 45 percent in favor, 47 percent neutral on the issue and 12 percent opposed.
The survey was done April 23-27, just days after the Obama administration admitted to and apologized for the accidental killing of American hostage Warren Weinstein and Italian hostage Giovanni Lo Porto, who were killed in a January drone strike against an al Qaeda compound in Pakistan.
The survey of roughly 1,000 U.S. adults has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.
