I swear to christ someone has to pay for this kind of mistake, or we are just mindless thugs. We have to pay attention to correcting our mistakes, or we are tacitly endorsing them.
The problem, of course, is that there is no accountability. None. What do I do, write to my senator and say how mad I am? People write to senators saying how mad they are all the time.
And the press stands by and does nothing. They are just foreigners, its not like they were Americans.
On it's face, Obama has final responsibility for this mistake. He is the Commander in Chief of our armed forces; the drone strike policy is his; what will he say? What will he do? Ignore it? Apologize and promise to "look into it"?
I have a suggestion to align the interests of our armed forces with the interests of our nation: fine the fuck out of the group that makes the mistake. Make this incident have a material impact on next years budget. Teach decision makers that when they kill innocents, their careers are on the line. It's an embarrassment that travels all the way up the chain, all the way to the political level, but it will hurt your pocket book.
Where should the money go? The surviving families. They should be set for life. And if they radicalize and use their new wealth to arm themselves against the US? Oh well, I guess we should have thought of that before blowing whole innocent families up - and by remote control, no less. (Heck, we don't even do them the honor of putting a single American life in jeopardy to assassinate people anymore. Sheesh.)