So everyone else is complicit, but not you for sitting in safety and enjoying the fruits of our military-industrial complex? Or are you posting this from your mountain compound utilizing green energy in between militia training sessions? EVERYONE is complicit. People don't sign up for the military or go to work for the government thinking about all the brown people they can bomb or oppress that day. The vast majority of the missions are rather mundane and come down to support for personnel and other missions.
Putting "everyone but me is complicit!" in my mouth is a silly way to argue against me.
And there are a small number of people who deliberately live off a small enough income to not pay income tax so they don't have to help pay for the wars. It's rather extreme but I can't help but admire them a little.
I have no doubt that 99% of people enlist with good intentions. The problem is the general public is largely uninformed and the MIC wants it that way. The FBI has literally had advertisements asking to interview drone pilots removed. Probably because when they speak about it, they say things like 'I became a sociopath.'
As far as what made us more of less safe, that is something you certainly aren't qualified to speak to, and probably no one will have a real answer for years to come. When we overthrew the Shah in the 50s no one had any idea we would be where we are today. I'm sure there have been similar situations that worked out more to our advantage. If we're talking about morality, I'm not sure that whether we are more or less safe due to an action is really material, but that is up for debate.
Bullshit. Civilian control of the military is a cornerstone of our democracy. We control them-- or we're SUPPOSED to anyway. You can't just give them free reign to do as they please and throw up your hands saying, 'they know secrets we don't so we're not qualified.' How long would Vietnam have been without civilian protest?
It's not just Iran and the Shah.
The listincludes Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria. Hell, we even intervened in Russia's 1917 Civil War. Mubarak's tear gas had 'made in the USA' on it and in no surprise, Egypt's opinion of us is one of the lowest in the world. The US has no qualms over supporting pro-US dictators, and we pay a price when they get outted. Russia is evil for arresting gays but our buddy Saudi Arabia executes them and instead of media outrage we sell them 60 billion in arms.
Muslim approval of the US is back down to Bush era lows after Obama has proven to be a gigantic disappointment. Al-Qaeda is the ENEMY of Muslim states and yet we are HATED by the people in those states. That hatred is what fuels AQ-- you won't get some kid to strap a bomb on himself if his response to 'lets kill Americans' is 'why, they never did anything to me.'
Obama's drone campaign is a massive blunder because it sows hatred and resentment. The only three nations in the world that don't disapprove more than approve of our drone use is Israel India and the United States. Even strong allies have disapproval in the 70s.
Here are the Bureau of Investigative Journalism's drone stats:
Total reported killed: 2,548 - 3,549
Civilians reported killed: 411 - 890
Children reported killed: 168 - 197
Total reported injured: 1,177 - 1,480
So by their count, 1 out of every 4 dead are civilians and 6% are kids.
Here's a list of children-- names and ages-- killed by our drones. The 16 year old American kid included.
So who are these people that are so dangerous that we have to accept this much collateral damage? We don't even know in most cases. The so called 'signature strikes' are strikes on people who exhibit certain types of behavior-- we're not just dropping bombs on terrorists with pictures we put on playing cards.
HuffPo Article_sl said:
Jalal Manzar Khail was at his nearby home that day and remembers the attack, which also claimed four of his cousins. Khail's six-year-old son was later afraid -- not unreasonably -- to sleep in their house. "We cannot go home," Khail recounts his son saying. "We have to spend the night in the tree." Khail adds, "Convey my message to Americans: The CIA and America have to stop ... they're just creating more enemies and this will last for hundreds of years."
Khail's message is not uncommon. "At the end of almost every interview I did," Greenwald told me, "the person would say, 'Please tell President Obama I am not a terrorist and he should stop killing my family.'"
So is somebody going to tell me if we don't do this, those 3,000 people we didn't blow up would all buy plane tickets, go to the USA, and bomb a crowd somewhere? It's absurd. We just execute suspects with drones because ironically it is politically easier to drop a bomb on their heads than capture and try them.
