Despite President Obama’s outspoken praise for the intelligence community in the wake of revealing a pair of Western hostages killed in January, the drone war which has become a centerpiece of his foreign policy is often carried out in an intense fog.
There have been occasional inquiries in the past about “signature strikes,” the administration’s policy of carrying out strikes on totally unidentified people they think are acting like terrorists might act.
All this language really means, however, and it’s something that’s becoming increasingly apparent, is that when President Obama signs off on a strike and some CIA agent pushes a button, the US often has no real idea who they’re about to kill.
The January hostage killings reveal this in more ways than one, as the US struck what it figured was an “al-Qaeda compound,” which is the official way of saying they blew up a house. They had no idea who was inside, except that there might be al-Qaeda.
And in this case there were. The strike killed six people, including the two hostages. Also killed were a pair of American al-Qaeda members, neither of whom had been put on the president’s already legally dubious kill list, meaning they were likewise extrajudicial killings of American citizens.
Indeed, after all this we still don’t know who the other two out of the six were, though the fact that the administration isn’t presenting this as an “all’s well that ends well” situation indicates they, like most of the victims of US drone strikes, were nobody of any consequence.
That’s the US drone war all over. A lot of people are killed, only a handful are ever identified at all, and when the US does happen to kill some real al-Qaeda leader, they seem as surprised as anybody, because they sure didn’t know they were aiming at him.
The concept and the principals of a militarism regime is to act militarily, although the word democracy and democratic and other related words are used but is a excuse for such regime to do and act just the opposite. Roman Empire did it, Hitler did it and in 2015 the U.S. NATO Militarism since the Vietnam and Korean War still doing it.
What I wonder is how often they actually know who will die.
What is a little amazing about all this is that no one is blaming al-Qaeda. I've yet to hear anyone use the "they were hiding behind women and children" canard. The phrase "human shield" has yet to be uttered.
After all, as recently as the death of Kayla Mueller, held by ISIS and killed by a Syrian strike, we've seen the "blame the victim" card played over and over. Not to mention Israeli strikes in Gaza and the West Bank.
The actual killers need to be blamed. In this case the U.S. It's rare and refreshing to see this change.
How about painting white house Red with the blood of innocents martyred, fetched from around the Muslim world? US lead invasion spills the blood of innocents and God will soon make American hawks pay back for their crimes against humanity.America deals in weapons and human lives, she creates ammunitions to kill who ? only innocent humans. May Allah destroy the ordinance factories of the US at the hands of Islamic State. Shameless Obama will go to hell for killing so many humans everyday !
TO — @Indian_Muslims1
So, you think that the purpose of this world is to give your deity an opportunity to kill off all those who do evil. Well then, you must also believe that your deity is a dictator, one who terrorizes people into obeying his laws of good under penalty of death. But quite the reverse, for to reach the ultimate conclusion of a New Commandment, this is what planet earth is all about, for it is written:
“We are told that Moses orders us to take, ‘Eye for eye, tooth for tooth and life for life.’ But, a New Command I now give you: Do not use force to overcome Evil, if they strike you on the right cheek turn to them the other.”
For we are commanded to to do only good for but one reason, any other course of action would cause this world to self-destruct, as we shall discover in about six seconds.
And the illusion of an eternal burning hell, that piece of fiction came into the church during the Dark Ages, in AD 381 when King Constantine published the first Bible.
Do you think that excuse (Drones cause less damage than troops on the ground and are safer than manned aircraft), will be met with an "Oh OK, that makes sense", when our adversaries start targeting our friends (or us) with drones?
When drones are knowingly used to attack wedding parties and funeral processions, it is known that innocent people will die.
Scott Horton Show
Gareth Porter
“US and NATO nations are demanding that the Iran sanctions architecture remain in place for at least ten years. Also, that our puppet creation, the IAEA, that it have the power to terminate the Agreement anytime they so desire”
http://scotthorton.org/interviews/