Read an absolutely amazing article today. In this piece, the author’s thesis is that all this fuss about America’s drone policy is overdone and perhaps a little hysterical. Yes, he admits, there are some figures that suggest that as many as 900 civilians have been killed in drone strikes between 2004 and 2013. But, he notes, that only averages out to about 100 civilians a year. Apparently, we need to put that number in perspective: In 2012, measles killed 210 children in Sindh.
So I’m reading this and thinking, he’s not really going to go there, is he? But he does: I am not minimising the civilian casualties from drone strikes. Nor am I denying that drones deserve rigorous debate in Pakistan (and beyond). Still, it’s striking how so much less is said about afflictions that affect – and kill – so many more people than do drones. The reason, of course, is the allure of anti-Americanism.
So there it is, folks. Welcome to the honor of American citizenship. Should we replace E Pluribus Unum with We Don’t Kill as Many Children as Measles? Of course people aren’t mad about bombs being dropped on them from space without reason; they’re mad because anti-Americanism is alluring!
written by one Michael Kugelman, identified as the Senior Program Associate for South Asia at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C.
and, no, it is not the author we should be fighting against. it is Obama… and “us.”
speaking of little kids in a war zone, here’s more collateral damage that we’re responsible for…
Iraq at the Brink: A Decade after the Invasiont: UK-based Iraqi writer Hussein Al-alak wrote on the upcoming tenth anniversary of the Iraq invasion with a tribute to the country’s ‘silent victims,’ the children. According to Iraqi Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, he reported, there is an estimated 4.5 million children who are now orphans, with a “shocking 70 percent” of them having lost their parents since the 2003 invasion. “From that total number, around 600,000 children are living on the streets, without either shelter or food to survive,” Al-alak wrote. Those living in the few state-run orphanages “are currently lacking in their most essential needs.”
So why is all the focus on the use the drones? The discussions on the issue seem to conveniently leave out the fact that the USofA is executing people without benefit of trial. Too many of the discussions about the drones have lost sight of the fact that the drones are only a delivery system for the extrajudicial killings that have become almost common place during Obama’s term in office.
I seem to recall that even the Nazi high command were put on trial prior to execution or imprisonment. When did the US give up the concept of habeas corpus? Suddenly we are living under a legal system that dates to the middle ages. Will be electing Richard III next?
Taibbi: Rationalizing Drone Attacks Hits New Low
Read an absolutely amazing article today. In this piece, the author’s thesis is that all this fuss about America’s drone policy is overdone and perhaps a little hysterical. Yes, he admits, there are some figures that suggest that as many as 900 civilians have been killed in drone strikes between 2004 and 2013. But, he notes, that only averages out to about 100 civilians a year. Apparently, we need to put that number in perspective: In 2012, measles killed 210 children in Sindh.
So I’m reading this and thinking, he’s not really going to go there, is he? But he does: I am not minimising the civilian casualties from drone strikes. Nor am I denying that drones deserve rigorous debate in Pakistan (and beyond). Still, it’s striking how so much less is said about afflictions that affect – and kill – so many more people than do drones. The reason, of course, is the allure of anti-Americanism.
So there it is, folks. Welcome to the honor of American citizenship. Should we replace E Pluribus Unum with We Don’t Kill as Many Children as Measles? Of course people aren’t mad about bombs being dropped on them from space without reason; they’re mad because anti-Americanism is alluring!
thanks rjs
i feel sick.
this is the sort of thing we the people should be fighting against loudly until it is stopped.
you should make clearer that the “author” is not taibbi.
the author, just so you know:
written by one Michael Kugelman, identified as the Senior Program Associate for South Asia at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C.
and, no, it is not the author we should be fighting against. it is Obama… and “us.”
was just trying to get the gist of taibbi’s point without copying the whole article, dale..
that said, i imagine i could have done a better job formatting it…
rjs
was not criticizing you. you have done a service for your country trying to bring this to our attention.
but i am old school: an “essay” should contain within itself everything needed for its comprehension. cites and footnotes are for “further research.”
in my ancient opinion “webspeak” is destroying our ability to think in connected paragraphs.
but set that aside. what can you, I, we, do about America the former home of the brave?
dont know, dale…we’re all pretty powerless, like little kids playing in a sandbox in the middle of a war zone…
speaking of little kids in a war zone, here’s more collateral damage that we’re responsible for…
Iraq at the Brink: A Decade after the Invasiont: UK-based Iraqi writer Hussein Al-alak wrote on the upcoming tenth anniversary of the Iraq invasion with a tribute to the country’s ‘silent victims,’ the children. According to Iraqi Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, he reported, there is an estimated 4.5 million children who are now orphans, with a “shocking 70 percent” of them having lost their parents since the 2003 invasion.
“From that total number, around 600,000 children are living on the streets, without either shelter or food to survive,” Al-alak wrote. Those living in the few state-run orphanages “are currently lacking in their most essential needs.”
My Yahoo! front page just published an independent story about how lousy is the new Yahoo! front page.
Don’t think that was the plan…..
So why is all the focus on the use the drones? The discussions on the issue seem to conveniently leave out the fact that the USofA is executing people without benefit of trial. Too many of the discussions about the drones have lost sight of the fact that the drones are only a delivery system for the extrajudicial killings that have become almost common place during Obama’s term in office.
I seem to recall that even the Nazi high command were put on trial prior to execution or imprisonment. When did the US give up the concept of habeas corpus? Suddenly we are living under a legal system that dates to the middle ages. Will be electing Richard III next?
warning: this video contains graphic images of dead and wounded children, and a message from your president…