This posting is just a reminder. Readers of this blog have heard all this before.
In the name of the citizens of the United States of America, the President has authorized a program that is routinely sending killer drones into the skies over other countries, to kill people based on a determination that the people killed exhibit "behavior commonly associated with militants."
You can read about such "signature strikes" in an article, titled, "Obama's Most Dangerous Drone Tactic Is Here To Stay." The government has no specific information on the people they kill, and while there seems to be no doubt that many innocent people are being murdered by our drone program, U.S. officials continue to claim it's justified.
If you feel comfortable with this kind of a program, targeting people for death on the basis of what amounts to an "algorithm," with no specific information on the people targeted, and with no chance for those targeted to provide any evidence that they should really not be killed, you should probably not be too outraged when ISIS-inspired killers blow up airplanes or put bombs in subway stations.
Terrorism on one side leads to terrorism on the other. Let's be realistic about that.
According to one web-based source, the following quotation, though long associated with Gandhi, has never been definitively attributed to him. Whoever said it, and whenever they said it, the observation reprinted below expresses a truth that the United States government's "signature strike" program has failed to comprehend:
An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind
Image Credit:
http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/04/05/obamas-most-dangerous-drone-tactic-is-here-to-stay/
The parable of "An eye for an eye" is about revenge. The people targeted in drone strikes are not being targeted out of revenge. They're being targeted because they pose a danger to the USA. The USA is a nation and has a right to defend itself. It's an open question how that might best be done, but never killing it's enemies is not on the table.
ReplyDeleteTerrorism is violence in the name of a political agenda. Targeted killings, by drone or special forces, aren't "terrorism" because they aren't in the name of a political agenda. They're in the name of protecting a nation state.