By “in many cases outright denying the existence of victims of drone strikes”, I think that the author meant “in many cases (i.e., many strikes), outright denying that some of the victims are in fact victims.”
The author is probably referring to the reported policy of considering all military-age males in a strike-zone to be militants (and hence not innocent victims). I take the author to be claiming that (1) non-militant military-age male victims of drone strikes exist in many cases, and (2) the reported policy amounts to “outright denying the existence” of those victims.
Yes. Furthermore, the “many cases” doesn’t refer to many people who think that there has never been an innocent victim of a drone strike. Rather, the “many cases” refers to the (allegedly) many innocent victims killed whose existence (as innocents) was denied by reclassifying them as militants.
By “in many cases outright denying the existence of victims of drone strikes”, I think that the author meant “in many cases (i.e., many strikes), outright denying that some of the victims are in fact victims.”
The author is probably referring to the reported policy of considering all military-age males in a strike-zone to be militants (and hence not innocent victims). I take the author to be claiming that (1) non-militant military-age male victims of drone strikes exist in many cases, and (2) the reported policy amounts to “outright denying the existence” of those victims.
That’s how I read it. The claim isn’t that no one was killed by drone strikes, it’s that no one innocent was killed, so there are no victims.
Yes. Furthermore, the “many cases” doesn’t refer to many people who think that there has never been an innocent victim of a drone strike. Rather, the “many cases” refers to the (allegedly) many innocent victims killed whose existence (as innocents) was denied by reclassifying them as militants.