Hey folks:
Here is another example of what the United States Government, even under the Obama Administration, has wrought in terms of havoc to another country and its people. Read the following link and weep/gnash your teeth:
Rare Reporting Reveals Afghan Civilians Terrorized by US Drones
by Jacob Chamberlain, Common Dreams
Published on Thursday, March 28, 2013
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism recently reported that 1 in 4 missiles in Afghan airstrikes are now fired by drone, in addition to the other forms of bombardment that have caused unspeakable harm to Afghan civilians.
The impact of the US drone war on civilians living in the villages below was explored in a report last year by researchers at Stanford and New York University – called Living Under Drones (pdf)-which found that civilians in Pakistan were being “terrorized” by the drones. In addition, the report concluded the program was ultimately “counterproductive” when it came to addressing international law, security, and human rights.
Following the release of that report, Clive Stafford Smith, from the human rights group Reprieve, remarked: “An entire region is being terrorized by the constant threat of death from the skies. Their way of life is collapsing: kids are too terrified to go to school, adults are afraid to attend weddings, funerals, business meetings, or anything that involves gathering in groups.”
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Instructive as well as informational.
What chance has anyone, once in the drone’s site, have of escaping death? How often would an al-qaeda, or other suspect be traveling solo? Somewhere I read that there had been over 4,000 innocent deaths because of the use of drones. It is a cowardice! It, is my view, is a “war crime!” Mind you, all weapons kill, but the use of drone means absolute death once the drone has sited a so-called enemy and how could you really tell if it’s that enemy at all?
The use of drones should be outlawed, period.
BTW, Clive Stafford Smith, has been/is the attorney in the Binyam Mohamed case.
Thanks for posting this — a subject that should not be dropped!
The heart of the War on Terror is to terrorize others. This doctrine came straight out of neoconservative writings in the 90s. They believed the U.S. needed to be arbitrarily and irrationally violent in order to be “respected” rather than loved. Their view is that “natives” are only impressed by the use of force since they lack the “civilization” to understand ultimatums, the neocon idea of negotiations.
Since the end of the of Constitutional rule (1963) the U.S. has engaged in culture destruction not just war. Vietnam was almost razed to the ground as was Iraq once the most prosperous and advanced society in the region and, of course, Afghanistan both indirectly (during the Soviet war–long story) and directly in more recent years.
What is missing in this country is a willingnes to face facts. Sadly, no one wants to listen (outside a very narrow audience)–it’s too hard and uncomfortable even for alleged MSNBC, NPR and so on leftists who are nothing of the sort.
But is it not especially under the Obama administration that the U.S. has gone hog wild with drone strikes?
That is without mentioning all manner of depradations from the greatly increased deporting of undocumented aliens, the vigorous crushing of dissent, the huge increase in production of fossil fuels…
The list is endless.
But why so? How can it be that a decent sort of fellow can be worse than those without any morality?
The question answers itself.
Before Pol Pot and the horrors of Khmer Rouge and then the Lord’s Resistance Army in Africa, the fringes of terror were plumbed by the Sendero Luminosa [Shining Path] guerrillas organized by Abimael Guzman, a social worker of all things.
The doctrine of terror extended to the “water the fish swam in” – a matter of concern even for a mass murderer like Mao.
Moral authority is very tricky. More hurt seems to be done in the name of goodness that all that by the evil do-badders who only want to sate their own lust and greed.
Best, Terry