I Own Myself: January 2013

Below is an email I sent to my dad in response to his request for articles backing up what I had been talking about regarding the use of drones.

Dad,

I'll link the articles about Obama's drone war you requested in a minute, but I just wanted to write a couple thoughts.

It is possible to love your country as your home and think it's a beautiful place with all of your family, friends, roots, and familiar surroundings, and to simultaneously hate the government that rules you, tramples on your natural rights, and carries out incredible evils both at home and abroad in your name and with your money (I believe we agree on this, but I am just reiterating). In fact, this is the spirit with which this country was born. If we love our home, we should hate the gang that claims dominion over our home, steals ever-increasing amounts our money, and prevents us from living as free individuals. To add insult to injury, this gang pats itself on the back for its "service" and builds statues and monuments to glorify itself. It's sickening.

Further, I hate the State because of how it has steadily and deliberately chipped away at an essential part of our humanity and caused us to become callous and indifferent, and even supportive at times, of the killing of other innocent human beings (always for the benefit of the State, although it lies and says it does so for our safety). Just the first few things that come to mind are:

- We've been taught to justify the only nuclear attack in history, carried out by our own government against two cities in Japan with over 200,000 deaths--the vast majority of whom were innocent men, women and children.

- We've been taught that the price "is worth it" for the Clinton administration to starve to death half a million children in Iraq in order to achieve the foreign policy objectives of the U.S. government.

- We've been taught that the enemy of our enemy is our friend, as that Joseph Stalin admirer--Franklin D. Roosevelt--teamed with the ultra-murderous Soviet Union to defeat its enemy, the also ultra-murderous Nazi Germany, thus empowering Communist rule for several decades and resulting in the deaths of tens of more millions of innocent human beings (some victory WWII was!)

- We've been mercilessly propagandized and brainwashed to believe that it has been worth trillions spent, precious liberties trampled upon and lost, thousands of soldiers dead and many magnitudes more innocent lives vaporized to "fight them over there so we don't have to fight them over here"....which has primarily meant occupying other sovereign countries and killing people who try to defend their home from foreign invaders.

- We've been convinced that it is ok for our government to use methods that are quite obviously terrorism and torture to try to get the "bad guys". Sadly and shamefully, the U.S. government has killed far, far more innocent people than Al Qaeda could ever dream of killing!

- We've been taught to revere power, to cheer that we always "win" wars, to love that our country has the strongest and biggest government in the history of the world and that it can dispense crushing force against anyone it chooses for any reason (of course, without thinking that a government this powerful is a direct threat to each and every one of us)

Anyway, here are some articles on Obama's drone war, some with select quotes that I had pulled out for other postings or emails from previous times.

AMERICA’S DRONE TERRORISM - The Future of Freedom Foundation

"U.S. drone strike policies cause considerable and under-accounted-for harm to the daily lives of ordinary civilians, beyond death and physical injury. Drones hover twenty-four hours a day over communities in northwest Pakistan, striking homes, vehicles, and public spaces without warning. Their presence terrorizes men, women, and children, giving rise to anxiety and psychological trauma among civilian communities. Those living under drones have to face the constant worry that a deadly strike may be fired at any moment, and the knowledge that they are powerless to protect themselves.

The U.S. practice of striking one area multiple times, and evidence that it has killed rescuers, makes both community members and humanitarian workers afraid or unwilling to assist injured victims. Some community members shy away from gathering in groups."

In the US, mass child killings are tragedies. In Pakistan, mere bug splats - The Guardian - UK

"It must follow that what applies to the children murdered [in Newtown] by a deranged young man also applies to the children murdered in Pakistan by a sombre American president. These children are just as important, just as real, just as deserving of the world's concern. Yet there are no presidential speeches or presidential tears for them, no pictures on the front pages of the world's newspapers, no interviews with grieving relatives, no minute analysis of what happened and why."

America's deadly double tap drone attacks are 'killing 49 people for every known terrorist in Pakistan' - The Daily Mail - UK

"Just one in 50 victims of America’s deadly drone strikes in Pakistan are terrorists – while the rest are innocent civilians, a new report claimed today.

The authoritative joint study, by Stanford and New York Universities, concludes that men, women and children are being terrorised by the operations ’24 hours-a-day’.

And the authors lay much of the blame on the use of the ‘double-tap’ strike where a drone fires one missile – and then a second as rescuers try to drag victims from the rubble. One aid agency said they had a six-hour delay before going to the scene."

The authoritative joint study, by Stanford and New York Universities, concludes that men, women and children are being terrorised by the operations ’24 hours-a-day’.

And the authors lay much of the blame on the use of the ‘double-tap’ strike where a drone fires one missile – and then a second as rescuers try to drag victims from the rubble. One aid agency said they had a six-hour delay before going to the scene."

PRIVATE MURDERS VERSUS GOVERNMENT MURDERS - The Future of Freedom Foundation

The December 14 murder of 20 children and 6 women at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, has garnered vast media attention and caused countless people with no connection to the victims to grieve for them. This is not a new phenomenon: nearly all mass murders carried out by civilians generate the same type of coverage and response.

But what of the far more numerous incidents of government murder of innocents? Most of them hardly make the news at all; fewer still produce widespread outpourings of sympathy.

US drone strikes target rescuers in Pakistan – and the west stays silent - The Guardian - UK

Attacking rescuers – a tactic long deemed by the US a hallmark of terrorism – is now routinely used by the Obama administration

“Militants”: media propaganda - Salon

To avoid counting civilian deaths, Obama re-defined "militant" to mean "all military-age males in a strike zone"

U.S. drones targeting rescuers and mourners - Salon

A new amply documented report demonstrates the use of American tactics that are almost certainly war crimes

How Team Obama Justifies the Killing of a 16-Year-Old American - The Atlantic

Asked about the strike that killed him, a senior adviser to the president's campaign suggests he should've "had a more responsible father."

Obama victory infuriates Pakistani drone victims - Reuters

"The 28-year-old Pakistani accuses the president of robbing him of his father, three brothers and a nephew, all killed in a U.S. drone aircraft attack a month after Obama first took office.

The same person who attacked my home has gotten re-elected," he told Reuters in the capital, Islamabad, where he fled after the attack on his village in South Waziristan, one of several ethnic Pashtun tribal areas on the Afghan border.

"Since yesterday, the pressure on my brain has increased. I remember all of the pain again."

How Drones Help Al Qaeda - NY Times

"Unfortunately, liberal voices in the United States are largely ignoring, if not condoning, civilian deaths and extrajudicial killings in Yemen — including the assassination of three American citizens in September 2011, including a 16-year-old. During George W. Bush’s presidency, the rage would have been tremendous. But today there is little outcry, even though what is happening is in many ways an escalation of Mr. Bush’s policies.

Defenders of human rights must speak out. America’s counterterrorism policy here is not only making Yemen less safe by strengthening support for A.Q.A.P., but it could also ultimately endanger the United States and the entire world."

New Stanford/NYU study documents the civilian terror from Obama's drones - The Guardian - UK