Elite U.S. Discourse and the Victims of Drone War

By John Oddo

In the early years of the war on terror, the Unites States began to employ drones, or "unmanned aerial vehicles," to launch missiles at enemy forces. While drone strikes were initially limited to the war's central "fronts" in Afghanistan and Iraq, U.S. officials quickly expanded the drone program, transforming a specialized surveillance tool into a lethal counterterrorism tactic. Even as drone attacks have terrorized and killed civilians, U.S. elites have largely celebrated them, touting their strategic value, legality, and technological capability while minimizing the harm to local populations.

Across the American media and political landscape, what rhetoric has been employed to normalize and rationalize the suffering wrought by drone warfare? What narratives are broadcast to (de)legitimize victims and their trauma? In Elite U.S. Discourse and the Victims of Drone War, John Oddo presents an original, detailed exploration of how powerful U.S. speakers represent the victims of American drone violence. Drawing on a wide-ranging corpus of media and political texts about U.S. drone strikes, Oddo specifies the stylistic and argumentative strategies U.S. speakers and media use to make overseas suffering palatable. What emerges from this analysis is a grim picture of U.S. rhetoric about drone victims in Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia: U.S. elites generally ignore, minimize, and rationalize civilian suffering amid claims of concern, while evoking international laws that permit violence against civilian populations.

Drawing on theories of linguistics and critical discourse studies, Oddo provides a rich and comprehensive study of the language and visuals depicting drone strike victims, advancing the conversation on distant suffering and victimization. He also proposes a more humane alternative for discourse on drone violence--one that prioritizes the experiences of overseas victims and challenges the violent practices of war.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0197854583
• ISBN13: 9780197854587
• Release Date: December 2026
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 312 Pages