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The Predators: Where is Your Democracy?
On May 4, 2011, CNN World News asked whether killing Osama bin Laden was legal under international law. Other news commentary has questioned whether it would have been both possible and advantageous to bring Osama bin Laden to trial rather than kill him. 
World attention has been focused, however briefly, on questions of legality regarding the killing of Osama bin Laden. But, with the increasing use of Predator drones to kill suspected "high value targets" in Pakistan and Afghanistan, extrajudicial killings by U.S. military forces have become the new norm.
Just three days after Osama bin Laden was killed, an attack employing remote-control aerial drones killed fifteen people in Pakistan and wounded four. CNN reports that their Islamabad bureau has counted four drone strikes over the last month and a half since the March 17 drone attack which killed 44 people in Pakistan’s tribal region. This most recent suspected strike was the 21st this year. There were 111 strikes in 2010. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan estimated that 957 innocent civilians were killed in 2010.
I’m reminded of an encounter I had, in May, 2010 ,when a journalist and a social worker from North Waziristan met with a small Voices for Creative Nonviolence delegation in Pakistan and described, in gory and graphic detail, the scenes of drone attacks which they had personally witnessed: the carbonized bodies, burned so fully they could be identified by legs and hands alone, the bystanders sent flying like dolls through the air to break, with shattered bones and sometimes-fatal brain injuries, upon walls and stone.
“Do Americans know about the drones?” the journalist asked me. I said I thought that awareness was growing on University campuses and among peace groups. “This isn’t what I’m asking,” he politely insisted. “What I want to know is if average Americans know that their country is attacking Pakistan with drones that carry bombs. Do they know this?”
“Truthfully,” I said, “I don’t think so.”
“Where is your democracy?” he asked me. “Where is your democracy?”
Ideally, in a democracy, people are educated about important matters, and they can influence decisions about these issues by voting for people who represent their point of view.
Only a handful of U.S. officials have broached the issue of whether or not it is right for the U.S. to use unmanned aerial vehicles to function as prosecutor, judge, jury and executioner in the decision to assassinate anyone designated as a “high value target” in faraway Pakistan or Afghanistan.
Would we want unmanned aerial vehicles piloted by another country to fly over the U.S., targeting individuals deemed to be a threat to the safety of their people, firing Hellfire missiles or dropping 500 pound bombs over suspected “high valuetargets” on the hunch of a soldier or general without evidence and without any consideration of which innocent civilians willalso be killed?
Fully informed citizens might be invited to consider the Golden Rule of “do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” but they would certainly be involved in the debate over how we will be treated in future years and decades when these weapons have proliferated. In 1945, only one country possessed the atomic bomb, but within decades, the “nuclear club” had expanded to five declared and four non-declared nuclear-armed states in a much less certain world. Besides the risk of nuclear war, this weapon proliferation has consumed resources that could have been directed toward feeding a hungry world or eradicating disease or easing the effects of impoverishment.
As of now, worldwide, 49 companies make 450 different drone aircraft. Drone merchants expect that drone sales will earn $20.2 billion over the next 10 years for aerospace war manufacturers. Who knows? One day drone missiles may be aimed at us.
Also worth noting is the observation that drones will make it politically convenient for any country to order military actions without risking their soldiers’ lives, thereby making it easier, and more tempting, to start wars which may eventually escalate to result in massive loss of life, both military and civilian.
Voices for Creative Nonviolence believes that standing alongside people who bear the brunt of our wars helps us gain needed insights. Where you stand determines what you see.
In October and again in December of 2010, while in Afghanistan, I met with a large family living in a wretched refugee camp. They had fled their homes in the San Gin district of the Helmand Province after a drone attack killed a mother there and her five children. The woman’s husband showed us photos of his children’s bloodied corpses. His niece, Juma Gul, age 9, had survived the attack. She and I huddled next to each other inside a hut made of mud on a chilly December morning. Juma Gul’s father stooped in front of us and gently unzipped her jacket, showing me that his daughter’s arm had been amputated by shrapnel when the U.S. missile hit their home in San Gin.
Next to Juma Gul was her brother, whose leg had been mangled in the attack. He apparently has no access to adequate medical care and experiences constant pain.
It's impossible to conjecture what would have happened had Osama bin Laden been apprehended and brought to appear before a court of law, charged with crimes against humanity because of his alleged role in masterminding the 9/11 attacks. But, I feel certain beyond doubt that Juma Gul posed no threat whatsoever to the U.S., and if she were brought before a court of law and witnesses were helped to understand that she was attacked by a U.S. unmanned aerial vehicle for no reason other than that she happened to live in proximity to a potential high value target, she would be vindicated of any suspicion that she committed a crime. The same might not be true for those who attacked her.
43 Comments so far
Show AllThere are no laws, only dictates directed at the poor.
I used to try to make that point to my father who was in law enforcement, that there was no such thing as "The Law," as in "I believe in obeying the law." We are obeying those who enforce a lot of different laws made into laws by a lot of different legislators in a lot of different jurisdictions. In almost all cases these laws and those who do the enforcing are slanted to favor the powerful. They are usually written in such tangled language that a whole lot of supposed experts called "lawyers" are needed to interpret them.
My father would say, when you let lawyers make the laws, you end up with laws only lawyers can understand.
I mean no offense to you or your father, but who do you nominate to make laws that everyone will understand, will abide by, will achieve the results desired by the makers and abiders, and in fact advance the common good (as you define the latter)?
Cheers,
A Lawyer
“Do Americans know about the drones?” the journalist asked me."
Do americans know about Kathy Kelly and the Voices for Creative Nonviolence - formerly Voices in the Wilderness? My imformed guess is one in ten-thousand.
How Kathy Kelly finds the fortitude to keep doing her good work form the deepest depth of the corporate media memory-hole, without succumbing to burnout and depression, is remarkable. If I only had her strength!
I totally agree pjd. Kathy Kelly is the sturdiest and toughest champion of what's right i know. In those Wilderness years she was very nearly the only voice speaking for the children of Iraq. And it always seems she is everywhere to at least try to tell the world what it needs to hear.
I agree with pjd, people like Kathy Kelly should be inspiring to those of us who think WE are getting burned out.
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I hear them brag about how much intelligence they got from bin Laden's computer library, but they KILLED the biggest intelligence prize of all!
THEY HAD ORDERS TO KILL; NOT CAPTURE BIN LADEN.
From Manuel Noriega to bin Laden, all of the CIA operatives of the past must be killed or they could spill the beans on what's going on.
Now they can manufacture the facts any way they want.
Hell yes we care! We march, we protest, we email, call, sign petitions all to no avail.
"Where is your democracy?" It died on 9/11 or even before that. Would we want to see drones in our country or soldiers bashing in our doors in the middle of the night and killing or taking away our family members? I ask my co-workers that and just get the how dumb are you look. They tell me we were attacked and the towers fell. It is their own fault now for what we are doing to them. I tried to tell them that even if that had happened, it was because of our policies of overthrowing and installing brutal dictators and our support of Israel. I can't get it through their stupid heads.
And now we are being bombarded with 'look out, they are coming for us because we killed their man'
Check out this link.
newyork.cbslocal.com/2011/05/03/expert-security-checkpoints-near-soft-targets-may-soon-become-the-norm
Your linked article ends with a "security official" saying:
"It’s freedom, coming with an increasingly heavy price."
What can one say about such a manifestly insane statement? Yet how many will question even its basic logic? It is Positively, Orwellingly, chilling...
The U.S.A. is the greatest threat to world peace on Earth. It is the greatest Terrorist in the world, but unlike conventional terrorists, it has a trillion dollar military at its beck and call to unleash its terrorism anywhere, anytime, against anyone.
If the rest of the world ever wakes up, it would behoove them to join together and remove the U.S. threat to the planet ASAP.
Too many other world governments are in on with the elites. Wasn't it France that wanted to attack Lybia? For either their oil or gas?
The US is the front man on the world's terrorist organization for the corporations. Again, since all these wars are for resources, why the hell am I paying for it and our soldiers stupid enough to join in. I am currently reading Butler's War is a Racket. Good read
Through much of the 1930's, western economic elites got along fine with, and even liked Hitler, the even let him have Czechoslovakia but tired of him by the time he invaded Poland. Similarly with the US. The rest of the west, with Russia as distateful but necessary ally, will, sooner than later, tire of the fascist US, then watch out. Yes, nuclear strikes will be required.
A sad, but necessary cleansing of a great evil from the face of the earth if/when that ever happens.
I beleive many people DO indeed know about drone strikes...but have no idea what they mean in human terms so desenitised are they to the plight of fellow human beings several thousand miles away. They perhaps think a missile lands and pop a few people die instantly, wrong palce wrong time etc etc....just as Bruce Willis flies through the air as an explosion goes off behind him so many people think those who survive a drone attack merely get blown about a bit and then get on with their lives.No thought is given to arms, legs separated from bodies and torsoes left to bleed in the rubble. Families left with the maimed, traumitised, poor as it and now without the means to earn a living. Somewhere along the line people here have lost all concept of comapssion and fellow-feeling. Such concepts are viewed as weak.
Kathy Kelly is a hero....no other word for her.
The concept of compassion (or the capacity to CARE about other) is viewed as weak because for a nation to readily rely upon a potential body of armed troops it must retain empathy as the great taboo. Generally feelings, most considered weak, are attributed to women; plus most men resent it terribly when they are compared with women. Think of the jokes on SNL about men trying to beef up muscles so they won't be regarded as "girlie men." Or the awful insult of being called a "sissie," and so forth.
One of my friends got her husband to go for counseling. No matter what scenario the counselor depicted, in an effort to draw discernible feelings from this man, the ONLY emotion or feeling he could identify with was anger. Incidentally, astrologers equate anger with Mars, the god of war and key signature of the martial state.
The road rage on America's highways is a phenomenon of unleashed anger. If there was a way to take a nation's emotional temperature, I believe we'd see more evidence of my frequent comment that inside the Homeland (in)Security State, Mars indeed rules.
When we kill innocent civilians simply because we're using unmanned drone planes to bomb areas where these civilians live, we're guilty of murder. There's no other name for it!!!!!!!!!!
what if you were using manned aiplanes to drop the bombs on civilians? What would you call THAT?
Murder 1 - for any and all who put the plane in the air..... what's your beef?
I will contend there is one other name for it. Terrorism or rather state sponsored terrorism. And a cowardly form at that, push button killing from afar as if it is a game.
The CIA and the American Government have been using patsy's clear back to Oswald ( and by the way, Oswald was interrogated for many hours by the FBI and the Dallas police. How come after 58 years his statements have never been published?) and then like Saddam have them murdered to cover up their nefarious deeds because they knew too much. Osama is just their latest patsy. Kathy Kelly, says: "Who knows? One day these drones may be aimed at us." Yes Kathy, once anyone in America becomes a danger to the powerful and super wealthy elite, they will have no compunction on using these same drones on " American terrorists " as a terrorist to them is any one that they perceive as potential threat to their wealth and power.
PAUL R: While I agree with your post, Kathy was pointing out something else... that this technology (drone warfare) is spreading. As the US empire fades, its dollar flooding the world market and perceived as less valuable, other developing nations may have the extra funds to purchase drones of their own. What would stop mercenary firms (if their US contracts begin to falter) from purchasing/developing or utilizing weapons on behalf of new clients? Therefore while Americans currently own the dangerous conceit that their miltary is top-notch, bar none, and that they have nothing to fear inside their overly guarded borders... a time will come when drones may pass overhead, fruit of the long vintage of sweet vengeance. How many MILLIONS have lost a loved one to one of America's imperial pursuits? The day of reckoning eventually does tend to arrive...
Kathy is trying to get people to realize what such an impact would feel like to them and their loved ones so that they will not remain inured to what their diabolical government does in their (and our) names.
Thanks, Sioux Rose for the clarification. Looks like I missed that excellent point.
You're very welcome. (If you wish to read her words again, I think you'd agree.) I notice that you and I generally do agree on most issues, anyway...
Hmmm
Well if anyone out there still has any questions as to what constitutes "terrorism"....... you need only to look at these drone attacks. No judge no jury, no oversight, no nothing-just death. Innocent men women and children killed by the hundreds (thousands?) who's only crime was to simply be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Truth justice and the American way? Protecting the poor and down trodden from the evil dictator? The world is filled with terrorist states. And in the Middle East we are king with Israel as our trusty second banana killing anyone and everyone that we don't like.
Maybe it has always been so, but these days it is increasingly clear that "legality" is something that is whatever the most violent and powerful people say it is.
When all the window dressing of civilization is pushed aside for a moment it is easy to see that we live in a "Might makes Right" world.
In practical terms, might, -not right, or law, or principle, or morality- is the ultimate arbiter of all disputes.
I feel like the U.S. position in the world today is so arrogant, something like, "Don't like it? Too bad! How about a drone strike, then, would you like that? No? How about a cruise missile? No? How about a cluster bomb unit dropped on you and your family's head? Don't like that either? How about white phosphorus burning the skin off you and your children? What, you don't like that either? Well, then, shut the f** up, because you don't WANT to piss us off".
In fact, many posters all around the Web, and many pundits on TV, and many newspaper writers, this past week, have shown- more or less- that same bully-like attitude as they zealously defend what they perceive as the holy virtue and innate good of the bin Laden assassination.
Sort of a redneck bully up-close-and-personal "Shut up or I'll kick your ass" attitude.
Sometimes I forget that it is really fear which causes it.
--------------
So, I guess I'd have to say: I'd hate us, too. I can't blame the people who hate the U.S.
The U.S. has brought it on itself by being such a bad actor in the world far too much, although certainly not entirely.
We've coasted for decades on the (mostly) good will the U.S. earned between 1941 and 1945. Even Vietnam did not erase that good will. But I think the U.S. has just about used up that good will; this country is running on empty morally, or at least, our "leaders" seem to be, for the most part. We're down to "the fumes" when it comes to the world's good will. I wonder what's next.
Unfortunately, if, or rather when, payback happens, it is certain that the little people will be the ones hurt, not the "leaders" whose hubris, greed, and blood-lust got us into this terrible mess.
Here are some criminal and formerly illegal things that the U.S. has made legal, or as good as legal, (i.e., no accountability nor consequences) in the past decade:
1. Aggressive war;
2. Collective punishment (in war)
3. Wanton killing of civilians;
4. Torture;
5. Assassination;
6. Unreasonable search and seizure;
7. Corporate purchase of elected officials;
8 Grand theft: i.e., stealing incredibly huge amounts of money from the U.S. Treasury and distributing it, both openly and secretly, to both private citizens and private corporations of both the United States and a number of foreign nations;
9 Libel and slander, (heavily used in propaganda)
10. Mistreatment or killing of captured "enemy";
11 Chemical warfare
and finally
12 Treason.
I know I've missed some, but those are the things that come to mind. I'm not saying these things are actually legal, but that they occur, and there are no consequences to the people responsible.
So basically, in the real world, that = "good as legal".
Fundamental example: George W. Bush, Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, et al., living as free, un-indicted, and very prosperous citizens, despite their documented and widely acknowledged crimes against the U.S. itself, against the sovereign nations of Iraq and Afghanistan, and, possibly, or even probably, other crimes against other nations.
FROD: Another GREAT post, and I have to say, everything about it reinforces my CD meme that "Mars rules."
Mars represents the individual, whereas its intended balance, and cosmic counterpart Venus, represents partnership. Mars resonates to "I," and Venus to "we." Mars signifies brute force, while Venus (as ruler of Libra, the sign of law), symbolizes legal compromises and treaties that are based on mutual agreement.
The whole bully scene, the uber: identification with weapons and aggressive war, the intense idolatry of football, the ungodly adulteration of natural food products, the disrespect for The Geneva Conventions, Bill of Right, Habeas Corpus, and our Constitution, and even the reality of both political parties morphing into one pro-war seamless arm of the MIC... all demonstrate our nation's disproportionate identification with Mars... and where there's too much Mars, Venus suffers a massive deficit. The balance is way off! That means less energy is directed towards love, peace, law, treaties, culture, art, music, sculpture, landscape, and designs that edify the human spirit. Their purpose? To raise up the collective consciousness by promoting unity.
Mars is an angry god, and as one poster related earlier, it resonates with the Old Testament and its precept of a punitive God. When people believe that God wants to punish them, that they have sinned and thus harbor guilt, they cannot be at peace. This war against the inner self easily translates through projection into a war upon Other. This is why the old patriarchal religions indirectly (or perhaps even directly) program the collective consciousness FOR war. Apart from small token homage to Mother Mary, the premise that God, the son, and Holy ghost--all of them MALE symbols--represents the WHOLE of Source, or Creative Forces leaves the feminine aspect, or Venus, out of the Divine equation. Is it any wonder then, that so many see war and violence as natural expressions? And that they try to humiliate those who believe in peace, fair treaties, decency among all tribes, and things of beauty, like our incredible world... being worthy of preservation, rather than littered in DU, land mines, radiation, Cor-exit, dead burned oil, dying forests, bleached coral reefs, and dead ocean zones. Mars alone can only destroy life. It takes Venus and Mars in PARTNERSHIP to both make and sustain life... until the Divine partner is recognized and brought back into all policy equations (and spiritual practices), there is NO hope of healing what has been torn asunder to the Breaking Point.
Not to be forgotten_ Pre-emptive War.
We will get you before you can get us. How does one overcome a force like that? They work overtime on their fears. Now they are jumpier than ever. They know that everybody has a reason to hate them. They have a heck of alot of heads of govts on the payroll! $2Billion a year to Pakistan and for that they get these horrible death drones?!
Its like a liar that has to tell mmore and more lies and it gets out of control..................
An important post, Frodnonag. When your post is published on the front page of NYT, then we can assume humans have retaken our corporate media and we can begin a long road to a semblance of democracy.
As for missing some of the worst crimes committed by the US anti-democratic establishment, you obviously missed firing of teachers and college professors who in any way reveal the grotesque evils committed by the establishment. And you also left out the ecocides of so many kinds that a separate list is in order.
Ms. Kelly thanks for the article. I'm afraid though that you're incredibly naive. Present day America combines two lethal strains: exceptionalism and outright ignorance. It'd be one thing if your average american could even locate Pakistan on a map, or spell the word drone. Unfortunately I doubt that's the case. And even if they could the attitude would be, "so what". Let's face it, USA was the big dumb bully who came out ahead at the end of ww2 and has benefitted since. Benefits are running out though as other countries catch up.
Thank you for writing this article and for all the work that you do.
"If American democracy ceases to move forward as a living force, seeking day and night by peaceful means to better the lot of our citizens, fascism will grow in strength in our land."
Franklin D. Roosevelt
"The next step in a fascist government is the combination under an energetic leader of a number of men who possess more than the average share of leisure, brutality, and stupidity. The next step is to fascinate fools and muzzle the intelligent, by emotional excitement on the one hand and terrorism on the other."
Bertrand Russell
"Without exhaustive debate, even heated debate, of ideas and programs, free government would weaken and wither. But if we allow ourselves to be persuaded that every individual or party that takes issue with our own convictions is necessarily wicked or treasonous then, indeed, we are approaching the end of freedom's road."
Dwight D. Eisenhower
"The most significant socio-political shift in our time has gone almost completely unremarked, and even unnoticed. It is the dramatic shift of the red-state bourgeoisie from leave-us-alone libertarianism, manifested in the Congressional elections of 1994, to almost totalitarian statist nationalism. Whereas the conservative middle class once cheered the circumscribing of the federal government, it now celebrates power and adores the central state, particularly its military wing... My own take is this: the Republican takeover of the presidency combined with an unrelenting state of war, has supplied all the levers necessary to convert a burgeoning libertarian movement into a statist one."
Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.
"Today's Conservatives Are Fascists: Torture, dictatorship, phony `elections,' and endless war - it's fascism with a `democratic' face"
Justin Raimondo
If Americans had listened to Kathy Kelly, and the many others who were warning Americans about the carnage in Iraq due to U.S. imposed economic sanctions, 9-11 would not have happened. Strange how the victims of 9-11 are remembered as they should be, but the Iraqi victims of sanctions who were mostly children are forgotten . If I remember them I am accused of living in the past. Iraqis had nothing to do with 9-11 except their victimization by the U.S. caused Muslims, sympathetic to them, to join bin Laden's fight against the U.S. Very few Americans understand the horror of our atrocities against the civilians of Iraq. Now Kathy is trying to warn Americans of the horror of U.S. atrocities in Afghanistan. It won't be because of Osama bin Ladens death as much as the suffering and deaths of the innocent Afghanistan people that will keep the terrorist wanting retaliation against us. we need to declare a cease fire and talk to our enemy and work out a peace deal as soon as possible.
“Do Americans know about the drones?” the journalist asked me. I said I thought that awareness was growing on University campuses and among peace groups. “This isn’t what I’m asking,” he politely insisted. “What I want to know is if average Americans know that their country is attacking Pakistan with drones that carry bombs. Do they know this?”
“Truthfully,” I said, “I don’t think so.”
___________________
No disrespect intended to Kelly, who is admirable, but the rest of the article doesn't clarify this somewhat ambiguous response.
It's a given that the Amerikan Imperium's increasingly authoritarian, terror-state, security-state government works to control and manipulate its citizens-- to permanently keep them as hysterical, fearful, distracted, and bamboozled as possible.
It does this while still paying traditional civics-class, good-government lip service to the principle that Amerika is a vibrant democracy because it cultivates a free, well-informed, well-educated, and patriotic but skeptical citizenry.
So on the one hand, the Amerikan government victimizes rather than serves its citizens. That implies that citizens are more to be pitied than censured-- a notion expressed in a verse from John Lennon's "Isolation":
"I don't expect you to understand
After you've caused so much pain
But then again, you're not to blame
You're just a human, a victim of the insane."
On the other hand, I hope that Kelly didn't mean to imply that the ugly and revolting truth of its government's conduct of the Permanent Global War on an Abstract Noun is being suppressed or deliberately concealed from the average Amerikan.
Or further imply that to the extent that this hypothetical average Amerikan becomes aware of the reality and consequences of such attacks, said Amerikan is, or would be, appropriately appalled and repelled by this circumstance.
The demagogues that populate Amerika's national political institutions and the corporate media that functions as the propaganda arm of its government proudly showcase and brag about its dastardly aggressive violence 24/7.
It may deny or sanitize certain gory details, and obscure them with tendentious spin and justifications, but it's not exactly trying to keep them a secret.
The more honest answer is that yes, average Amerikans know or should know that such horrors are rampant-- but they individually and collectively seek to minimize, deny, and rationalize such awareness.
I can't offer any statistically compelling data on this point, but I can't be the only one who finds that in everyday life, e.g. the workplace and quotidian social interactions, this ugly stuff just doesn't come up.
And that if it does, even "average" people who are dismayed or horrified will rationalize it as an unavoidable necessity, the price of fighting the good fight against Terrorists in order to protect Amerika and keep it secure.
And that's the kindest, most gentle attitude-- there are also the average Amerikan yahoo, lizard-brained types who see themselves as "realists" and self-righteously endorse the most reprehensible policies and strategies as exhibiting national strength and resolve.
Of course, even if Kelly knows all this she isn't about unload it on that anguished journalist. But I don't think it's a question of the average Amerikan not "knowing" about the crimes against humanity which have become routine, humdrum, everyday SOP by its government and military.
I think it's a question of the extent to which our overclass and government has corrupted and coarsened Amerika's culture and humanity, such that one way or another, the average Amerikan is pretty much OK with all of this.
Should the average Amerikan, then, be pitied or censured for their inability or unwillingness to honestly confront the issue? The best answer is "mu".
Well, our Wiemar moment is passing, and we're about to become a full-fledged Nazi nation. Where in the hell is the outrage, and the resistance? I didn't think I could possibly hate another president more than the evil chimp and his Sith master, but I was wrong as hell. Obama is now right there in the running with the other lying, mass murdering, criminal, fascist fucks.
I feel your frustration, kog. Obama has gone over to the Dark Side. The only thing that will save him would be a complete public confession of the facade, naming the real perpetrators and ordering an actual criminal investigation into 9/11. Short of that, the truth won't come out until after the American Empire is ashes.
Countries with reactors shouldn't start wars.
This would make a great "kids react" topic. I'd really like to see how Pakistani kids vs American kids react to the same drone attack.
the concept of "drone" - or attempting to minimize one's own risk while inflicting maximum carnage to others - contains the seeds of blowback by the very arrogance of the belief that the laws of the universe can be violated without consequence.
even the greatest technological achievements can only go as far as natural physical laws allow, and even then only supreme denial would assert that humans had attained "mastery" over these laws. yes, planes allow us to fly - and crash.
but of the moral laws, most folks (and mostly among those in positions of power - but also including too many of the gullible and psychically lazy masses) are asleep at the wheel. and the use of drones is near the top of the heap when it come to violations of natural moral law.
for those who use and extol the use of this medium as a strategy to enhance security unwittingly guarentee that those it victimizes will as sure as the sun shines grow, not diminish, as an opposing force..
because the most basic structure of the universe is balance. respecting, working with, honoring natural law (whether you give this reality a spiritual identity or a secular one) implies a recognition that violating, or throwing the delicate forces of life out of this balance is suicide. treating fellow human beings as threats, as objects to control and manipulate is one of the very oldest pitfalls of our unconscious ego-driven existance, and has never and will never lead to peace because it is by its nature incapable of imagining it.
drones are not the most dramatic manifestation of our "evil" - our shadow side, only the latest version of it. and whether or not at some future date they are ever used against this country by another, or against the people of this country by the government of this country, these and many more poisonous seeds are in the ground, sprouting, their foliage creeping into our most heavily guarded and fortified sanctuaries, entering our being and sucking the life out of it.
STARK: Great post. Events of our day give all of us much to be "stark raving" mad about!
Shorter, blunter response, no offense to Kathy Kelly:
“Do Americans know about the drones?”
"Know about the drones? Hell, the Americans ARE the drones!"
Kelly, Sioux, kog, frod, starkraving obedient, and a quarter million more members of CD do not seem to be a threat to the fascists running this place. It is doubtful that 300 million more CD types would pose any more of a threat.
Yahoo posted an article about the national debt problem. Readers may cast a vote on the comments. One comment that suggested that we stop all the wars, tax the rich and corporations, and reduce the DOD budget received a ratio of at least ten to one AYE votes. Average americans ARE aware but feel helpless. Analogous to that movie where the train is speeding and out of control.