The Obama Administration continues to use unmanned drones as a tool of war - a tool that according The New York Times, the Administration claims has killed 600 militants in Pakistan and no civilians since May 2010. But the math doesn't add up. Nor does the policy.
Think of the use of drone air strikes as summary executions, extra-judicial killings justified by faceless bureaucrats using who-knows-what "intelligence," with no oversight whatsoever and you get the idea that we have slipped into spooky new world where joystick gods manipulating robots deal death from the skies and then go home and hug their children. Everything America was once said to stand for: the rule of law, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights is in danger of becoming collateral damage as our fearful leaders continue to kill suspects and innocent alike, mindlessly unaware that the hellfire we are sowing will surely be reaped by Americans in the future. The proliferation of drone technology and its inevitable extension to civilian law enforcement is a leap into the arms of Big Brother.
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism recently estimated that at least 2,292 people have been killed by U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan since 2004. The Bureau determined that of that number, over 350 are civilians. A July 2009 Brookings Institution report stated ten civilians die for every one suspected militant from U.S. drone strikes. Yet another study by the New American Foundation concluded that out of 114 drone attacks in Pakistan, at least 32% of those killed by the strikes were civilians.
President Obama has greatly expanded the use of drones over the past several years, authorizing more drone strikes during his first fifteen months in office than President Bush did during the entirety of his eight years in office. In addition to the use of drones in Pakistan, the Administration has authorized strikes in Yemen and Somalia. The increasing reliance on drones and the lack of recourse for the families of innocent civilians that are killed by such strikes demonstrate the impunity with which the U.S. uses this technology.
Drone attacks undermine our moral standing in the world. They foment anger and resentment toward the United States. We have spent years in Afghanistan and Iraq under the guise of nurturing democracy and the rule of law while at the same time, our use of unmanned drones severely undermines the rule of law.
Challenging the legality of drone strikes in Pakistan and calling to light their indiscriminate nature is vital to prevent a dangerous precedent from being set that would allow international law and the laws of war to be stretched to justify strikes elsewhere. The legal justification for their use in Pakistan can and will be used to justify their use in other countries. Under this legal framework, the battlefield could be stretched to include anywhere in the world. Anywhere.
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salvage what is left.
Semper Fi
These wars apart from being against the wishes of the world have lasted longer than WWI and WWII combined.
Waziristan is de-facto independent area controlled by various warlords.
It is known as Islamic Emirate of Waziristan.
Therefore, no violation of Pakistani sovereignty occurs.
Pakistani rulers, both civilian and military play a hazardous double-game. They provide intel to Americans while playing up anti-American and anti-infidel card for the Muslim "street."
And becuase we 're the only thing which stands between them and their devolutionary Caliphates.
Sigh... the instant text message generation.
All one has to do is comtemplate what Japan, Germany and Iraq reaped after the end of WWI and first Gulf War
The bully position of the USA Foreign Policy is attrocious and very bad Karma
It is simply as boolean logic thought A and B, A or B and A union B. You just have to be able to read the Rule of Law.
Noting allows USA to Drone or start Unprovoked Wars
And you can't take your Holly Book or a copy of Village Voice with you either.”
Estate Taxes were created by my Granddad to keep Wealth from being passes on to those who did not earn it and redistribute the Wealth so new Opportunity and Technology can be created. The VOID we have today
The Spirit of the Book is what you become from the WORD. The Teaching of Christ. No need to take the book with you, once you become Righteous and the Spirit of GOD. But you do have free will to choose FLESH which dies with the body or become Spirit and the Energy and Light of GOD, which is exactly what you become on Resurrection, Samhadi, and Nirvanna
Sounds good. Obviously, you'd prefer if we had to risk the lives of our men and women on the battlefield.
Interesting to see that the idea lives on in the "global war on terror"
Reverend Write and OBL were right about this legacy. GDA
Only people who lob missiles "willy-nilly" at the civilians are Palestinains from Gaza.
BY the way drone attacks may have eliminted hundreds of militant leaders (and THOUSANDS of civilians) but what int he world makes you think the USA has a right to say who or what leadership they have in afghanistan. Its not our country, its theirs. WE are the invader. We are the bad guy.
But lets be clear, not anywhere WHITE people live.
The global war on terror - as a reaction to the mass murders of 911 have now taken a toll of at least a million deaths worldwide (the British medical Journal the Lancet estimated over 1 million excess deaths due to the invasion of Iraq alone). The wars on Iraqis and afghans had as their respective justifications the existence of Weapons of Mass destruction in the first instance, which proved to be a lie, and the capture of Osama Bin Laden in the second - which has been done.
What further justification can there be to continue adding to this prodigeous body count?
Shall we kill everyone who does not love the US? By killing them will they love us more?
The people defending their homesteads in distant kandahar - are they terrorists? After all, it is we who are bombing them in their country, not the other way around.
There being no victory condition, no planned exit strategy, no definition of who exactly the enemy is, where they are or what their agenda might be it seems to me that the global war on terror is just a liscense for the US to kill anyone anywhere for any reason forever.
The have distorted our loss to Vietname as they will in Iraq and Afghanistan. 10 years for the worlds super power to be unsuccessful at defeating a handful of terrorist with machine guns and a few chemicals
Just last week more steps were taken to help Wall Street while Main Street and the Public suffer for a long time.
If that does not explain that the 2 party system is evil, nothing will. Privatiztion of Profit and Nationalization of Debt. Taxing the Worker for all the Debt while freeing the rich from taxes.
Allowing the Expiration of the Bush Tax Cuts would have been so simple by simply letting it die without a debate or discussion. Creating the equal taxation of Bill Clinton once again.
Insead, more tax cuts to corporations and stock traders LOWERING REVENUE and RAISING DEBT for the work to pay.
I will not vote for the 2 party system either. Paul or Kucinich or write them in
Why not. U.S. already has the Senate, comitias, Pax Americana and whole bunch of quasi- Roman buildings and coliseums.
Why not the two- consul system.
Hey, as long as "comitia centuriata" elects the two, I am game.
What the U.S. is doing the world over is shameful.
U.S. citizens will pay the price for our corrupt ineffectual government, Pentagon, and incompetent MIC brass.