Come clean about drone attacks
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The constitutional and legal justification for killing Americans abroad should not be a state secret.
President Obama and Republican congressional leaders rarely agree about anything these days. What a shame that when they do find something, it happens to be one of the most odious legacies of the Bush administration that Obama now has embraced.
A recently leaked white paper outlines the administration’s justification for using drone aircraft to kill alleged terrorists, including at least two American citizens.
February 13, 2013 - 6:20 AM
Very very well said. I couldn’t agree more.
I couldn’t agree more with this editorial. What happened to due process with American citizens? With our penchant for incrementalism, how much longer before these tactics are used in our own cities. Any “perceived” threat answered with us killing someone, even our own people. No accusation,no arrest, no trial.With the killings of terrorists,even those questionable IMO, we have opened the door to even killing our own.Many times innocent people have been killed as well as the terrorists and are somehow considered acceptable collateral damage. Americans need to contact their representatives and stop this while we still can.
Our Imperial Prez, like James Bond, now has a license to kill!
I suspect a terrorist would rather be water boarded than assassinated.
The trouble with drone assassination is that frequently there is collateral damage in the form of innocents being killed along with the terrorist. Also no intel is gained as with capture. Drone assassinations have been almost universally condemned around the world.
Personally I support drone assassinations! Kill them all and let God sort them out!
Oh, the President just NOW has “a license to kill”? I wonder who is really that simple minded in reality?
The CIA has been doing such things for decades. That we now know such a program exists is the only real news and while we do need to have this program, we also need to have oversight and accountability. But this whiny, ‘how dare he’ act is old and cold IMO.
As I listened (which took effort because it was Bobby Jindal all over again) last night to Marco Rubio, it became clear to me that the utter and complete destruction of America is alright with the right wing as long as their control is asserted in the end. I do not respect nor understand such thinking and it has come to the point that agreeing with even points like this is such hypocrisy on their part that it dampens any concern I would normally have. In other words, I am becoming as closed minded as they are. I think too many people are. It is “the boy who cried wolf” syndrome. Even when they are right, I no longer care.
From an administration that couldn’t be straight with families of the deceased in Benghazi as well as the American people, it’s NOW requested that PREZBO and Co. come clean about drone attacks.
You rightfully claim that the American people have been kept in the dark regarding the use of drones and the policy of killing Americans without due process by this administration. We have been kept in the dark…by the leftist, lapdog, liberal media as this is hardly a new issue just come upon from a recently leaked memo.
The second election is complete and a guilty conscience makes the old dog stir.
2 – well, I think the fashionable answer is, “If you’re not committing a crime, you have nothing to fear”. Due process? Please.
3 – John R – I’m not a defender of the Obama’s by any means, but until we recognize that the problems pre-dated and expand beyond him, we’ll never see an end to the Imperial Presidency, irrespective of his party.
Well, Well…looks like the left are having some reality shoved down their throats. Hope it tastes good, you voted for it. And, if this doesn`t boil your blood, just wait until you start paying out of your wazoo`s for your newest TAX, Obamacare. Yet, these zombies continue to back the very fools that gave us these nightmares. We`ll see how long that lasts, especially the ones `up` for office.
Sandi..the `Right-wing boor` you speak of happens to a man of great intelligence…something not found on the left. But, you do get a consolation prize….Chris Dorner: Extreme left-wing ideologue progressive murderer..lets see…4 or 5 dead because of this unstable left-wing mad-man ? You must be so proud.
the dreaded drone. bombs away sandi!
Bush only did a fraction of the drone strikes(50 strikes) compared to the current President(350 strikes). Obama has made killing Muslims his full-time job. I believe there were 10 more killed yesterday, including 3 Taliban commanders.
It’s an effective tool which is why Liberals seem to dislike it. It’s also one of the areas where Dick Cheney and Obama agree. But Obama is running the show now so learn to like it because you can’t criticize him. He is your President.
http://seattletimes.com/html/opinion/2020343101_bruce13dronestargetedkillingxml.html
If a drone saves the lives of our “boots on the ground”, you are damn straight I support that idea. Americans in a foreign country making or playing at war with America should be shot on sight IMO.
The program does need oversight and accountability, as I said, but this hand wringing and soul searching now is pitiful.
Did the media do this before Hiroshima or Nagasaki? Hell, did they do it after?
You right wingers are jumping on this ONLY because it is a ‘beat up on Obama free’ card. You certainly did not bat an eye when Bush was the “Imperial Prez” with his torture, secret prisons, Rendition and Abu Ghraib.
Henry, your statement is a beautiful example of my contention that there is no real difference between modern liberals and neo-conservatives.
Ahh applewood, does it occur to you that insisting I “must be so proud” of an “unstable left-wing mad-man” implies that you are proud of the unstable right wing mad-men who have done similar things?
For the record, no, I am not.
“Kill them all and let God sort them out!”
Yeah, that’s our John R. What a peach.
Modern liberals don’t support drones trikes. Conservatives do support them.
I just wanted to commend the author, and the editors that allowed this to be posted. This is just a small piece of the evil being promulgated by our one-party system, but it’s a good start to get folks researching these atrocities more and to help with informing the millions of our fellow Americans that the very thing our country tries to scare people with (terrorism) is the same policy that our leaders use on countries. In reality, our country is the terrorist country and most of the world can see this. It’s hard to break through the incessant brainwashing that has been used on Americans for decades, but once the light switch comes on it’s clearly the sinister truth. If you want more information on these drone strikes check out this site http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/category/projects/drones/
If pouring water in some guy’s nose saves “boots on the ground” I am all for it and if standing off with a drone and blowing up the bad guys does the same thing I am for that. The hand wringing and soul searching I recall was about the damage to our reputation. Guess that does not count any more
15 – neoConservatives and modern liberals (such as President Obama) support them, conservatives do not. Classical liberals would not either, if there were any left.
True, “Modern liberals don’t support drones trikes” but modern liberals do support drone strikes that have oversight and accountability.
Killing innocents is “murder” whether the Taliban,Terrorists or America.
“Drone Trikes”…..I know it was just a simple typo but I haven’t laughed this hard in a long time.
I know JimW, it was too perfect!
My goodness. To read a good number of the posts above, I guess good old Harry S. Truman wouldn’t have been able to get on the cross quick enough in order to be crucified by some of this crowd.
Frankly, if a drone can prevent one single member of our own armed forces from being killed in order to take out a terrorist or a nest of them, I’m all for it. I’m just as sorry for the “collateral damage” as the next bloke but if it comes down to them or me, so sorry but they’re going to come out on the short end of the stick.
@23
Would you feel the same way if it was your family? These people are as human as you or I. Easy to say when it is someone else.
The problem with the drone strikes is that lack those things Sandi mentioned: oversight and accountability.
Will mentioned Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Those helped end a state of warfare that the US recognized when it actually declared war, and act that secured the commitment of the states and people to ending the state of warfare, to obligating all necessary resources (and making the coincident sacrifices).
That never happened in Iraq or Afghanistan or Iran, or Syria, or Pakistan, or the Balkans…in fact, it hasn’t happened since WWII. Bush never sought permission to end the state of warfare, and Congress never acted on the resolution to declare war.
Bush basically said, “We’re gonna fight them over there. For us or against us. They hate us because we’re free. USA USA USA. Mission Accomplished.”
Congress basically said, “Okay, do what you want, we don’t really care. We voted for it before we voted against it. We voted against it before we voted for it. We didn’t know you were going to do THAT. usa usa usa…here’s some more money. When are you going to stop spending money?”
As a result, we have a belligerent, clueless foreign policy that creates more enemies than it eliminates. Instead of looking for more ways to randomly piss them off, we should be looking for ways to get the hell out and let them learn to diaper themselves.
We need to bring the soldiers home. Now.
In a war innocent civilians job is to try to stay out of the way. So in this case I would advise if you find yourself in a mud hut in Afganistan with a group of men armed with AK47S and maps of New York on the wall to get out of there immediately.
Rubio’s speech was pure politics. He grabbed the opportunity to campaign.
The Obama administration purposely placed the drone assassination program under the CIA rather than the military in order to reduce Congressional oversight.
Like I said earlier, I support the drone assassinations, I just find it amusing that this Administration which claimed it would be so transparent, is not at all.
And it is amusing that this admin., which attacked the Bush admin. for its methods of fighting terror, has adopted and expanded those methods, e.g. the Patriot Act and withholding WH records from Congress just to name two examples.
I don’t think any of us can or should feel proud of drone strikes, or any other war effort, that hit the innocent. Oversight and accountability, though needed, will not change that either. But after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, dropping bombs on civilians became an acceptable thing not a “never again”. I am afraid some will find that out sooner rather than later.
Accountability? Why can’t this newspaper assign responsibility to the President without couching it in terms of the former administration? Only one President has ordered the killing of an American citizen on the soil of a non-combatant sovereign nation. Can’t the liberal bias of this editorial board for once be suppressed to criticize President Obama with clarity. “The current executive branch extending the policies of the Bush administration.” Horse hockey! We have a President who is unlawfully assassinating US citizens, violating sovereign nations, usurping legislative prerogative with unconstitutional executive overreach. Only one President has said he “makes the final decision.” Do your job as journalists; otherwise you have given tacit permission to continue what you claim to abhor. You the press are culpable…
dropping bombs on civilians became an acceptable thing….
I disagree Sandi. The way we fought in Afghanistan and Iraq
sorry..gremlins posted before I was through…
We have about 6000 dead and tens of thousands more injured/dismembered because we didn’t drop bombs on civilians. We had clear air superiority and could have carpet bombed towns and sections of larger cities if we wanted.
Instead we fought surgically trying to limit civilian deaths and incurred many more casualties.
I suppose “amusing” is one word for it. Sad is another.
I do not want to argue, but your numbers of dead and wounded do not begin to cover the Iraq and Afghanistan civilians casualties (no one was speaking of our casualties) and for the record, I did not say that Hiroshima and Nagasaki meant we went out of our way to harm civilians, only that the precedent was set. And it was.
Sandi..you did say dropping bombs on civilians was acceptable. Clearly, the US military doesn’t share your view as illustrated by how they conducted military action in both Iraq and Afghanistan.