Obama reveals what super power he'd like to have
Aiming to connect with America's youth, President Obama sat down with three YouTube "stars" on Thursday, tackling questions ranging from the use of drones to the super power he'd like to have.
In one of the more substantive moments from the interviews, self-described "Internetainerpreneur" Hank Green asked Mr. Obama whether he's concerned that history may show that his administration has misused drones, or too heavily relied on them.
Mr. Obama noted that drone technology "came into its own right when I first came into office."
"We have tried to put a series of constraints on how it's used," he said. "Understand that our goal has always been, how do we target very specific terrorists who are proven to be trying to kill us, or more frequently kill innocent Muslims in their home countries, and how do we do that with as little damage to the surrounding communities and innocent people as possible."
While acknowledging that "any kind of war is damaging" and results in casualties, the president said that "the sort of damage that may have taken place with a drone strike is always significantly less than if I had ordered a raid into a village where a high-value terrorist target was."
While the administration has downplayed the impact of drone strikes, multiple groups have estimated that hundreds of innocent people have died over the past decade from American drone strikes.
Mr. Obama said it's "entirely legitimate to say as new technologies develop we have to make sure we step back and say do we have a legal framework" to use them properly.
Green and the other two YouTube "stars" who interviewed Mr. Obama -- GloZell Green and Bethany Mota -- also asked Mr. Obama about a range of topics including sanctions against North Korea, marijuana policy, racial profiling by police, relations with Cuba, cyber-bullying and Boko Haram.
Mr. Obama also took several light-hearted questions. For instance, 19-year-old Mota asked Mr. Obama what super power he'd like to have.
"The flying thing seems pretty cool," he said, "as long as you could stay warm." He added that invisibility "seems a little sneaky."
Mr. Obama also revealed his "nerdy" answer: "I'd love to be able to speak any language," he said, prompting Mota to say, "That's actually amazing."
