A Nation of Murderers
A Nation of Murderers
The President and his advisors sat around a TV set intently watching a team of U.S. Navy Seals murder Osama Bin Laden. Obama had given the order for the killing. Our leaders watched this man being killed right in front of their eyes. They approved the hit team to go in and “take out” Bin Laden who boasted that he had engineered the 9/11 disaster that killed or wounded three thousand Americans. I wonder if our leaders and gave high fives to each other after the murder. I would not be surprised.
Israeli agents killed a number of Iranian scientists over the last years in an effort to halt the development of that country’s nuclear bomb. Israel and the United States have plenty of such weaponry. The U.S. leadership surely gave their OK for the Israelis to carry out these assassinations. We saw no condemnation of these killings by our government or the Israeli leadership.
Drone bombers, planes without pilots, now fly over areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan and drop bombs on pinpointed so-called enemies. The fact that civilians are routinely killed, as well as the targets, is passed over as “collateral damage” by our leaders. Our government murdered these human beings and the activities are paid for by our taxes.
The people who insist that the United States of America is a Christian country approve of these murders. People who see this as a secular country with separation of Church and state also approve of these murders. The churches that preach love, forgiveness and community approve of these murders by their silence. The synagogues and Muslim mosques that preach love, mercy and justice are equally silent. Our nation of shoppers, medical people and business are also silent about the murderous activity of our country. The media too remains uncritical of murder.
But we have always been willing to kill to get our way. African American slaves, Native Americans and Mexicans have always been seen as less than human and killing them seemed necessary from time to time as needed and desired.
In the Twentieth Century the United States went to war as a nation. In the Twenty-first Century, after the failure of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, we are now a nation of killers and murderers from afar. Assassination and drones kill the innocent who are charged and executed, no trials, representation or arguments. If for some reason, any reason, some nation or politician deems a person dangerous, there is no rule of law, just assassination. The innocent civilians are simply dismissed with our sick sympathies.
This trend away from the rule of law can only seep into the larger society. We already know the C.I.A. and the F.B.I. get rid of undesirables without resorting to trial and jury. Local police do the same. We laud media depictions like John Wayne and Tony Soprano who take justice into their own hands.
This dangerous trend is supported by our Democratic President. It can only be worse under a Republican regime. The occupy movement gives some hope to bring about significant change in our society. Ending of political murder must be added to that agenda.
RWC
posted by RWC | 7:49 PM
2 Comments:
Two days after his inauguration President Obama said America would not "continue with a false choice between our safety and our ideals." Some believed he would halt the use of drones. They were wrong. In the first two attacks Obama authorized fifteen people died, at least four were suspected al-Qaeda recruits. Three of the other dead were children.
On a bit of a side note, re: your mention of the Occupy movement as giving hope: the glorification of the Occupy movement in Oakland needs to stop. Clearly, none of these folks have read or been taught about MLKs' "Letter from Birmingham Jail," and know nothing about how to go about non=violent direct action. After one looks deeply at one's motives for direct action, one pledges not to retaliate in kind, and not take a plea for whatever they are charged with (the better to clog up a corrupt system). One does not bring flares, pipes, glass bottles,spray paint, or any other retaliatory tools to a direct action. Sadly, this has not been the case in Oakland.
As well, apparently none of the Oakland Occupiers thought about who they were really hurting when they shut down the port: the truck drivers, the freight handlers, the longshoremen and women, the small businesses that were waiting for their freight to make a much needed sale, none of whom are in a position to lose one day's pay, let alone two or three. The belief that closing the port hurt some far away fat cats is at best magical thinking, and at worst pure unadulterated bullshit flung about to justify thoughtless actions. Unless the Occupy movement in Oakland seriously cleans up its act it will bring no hope for change, but simply edge us closer to adding a police state to our already immoral corporate state.
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