Mehdi Hasan writes:
Speaking at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in May, Barack Obama spotted teen pop band the Jonas Brothers in the audience. “Sasha and Malia are huge fans, but, boys, don’t get any ideas,” deadpanned the president, referring to his daughters. “Two words for you: predator drones. You will never see it coming.” The crowd laughed, Obama smiled, the dinner continued. Few questioned the wisdom of making such a tasteless joke; of the US commander-in-chief showing such casual disregard for the countless lives lost abroad through US drone attacks.
From the moment he stepped foot inside the White House, Obama set about expanding and escalating a covert CIA programme of “targeted killings” inside Pakistan, using Predator and Reaper drones armed with Hellfire missiles (who comes up with these names?) that had been started by the Bush administration in 2004. On 23 January 2009, just three days after being sworn in, Obama ordered his first set of air strikes inside Pakistan; one is said to have killed four Arab fighters linked to al-Qaida but the other hit the house of a pro-government tribal leader, killing him and four members of his family, including a five-year-old child. Obama’s own daughter, Sasha, was seven at the time.
But America’s Nobel-peace-prize-winning president did not look back. During his first nine months in office he authorised as many aerial attacks in Pakistan as George W Bush did in his final three years in the job. And this year has seen an unprecedented number of air strikes. Forget Mark Zuckerberg or the iPhone 4 – 2010 was the year of the drone. According to the New America Foundation thinktank in Washington DC, the number of US drone strikes in Pakistan more than doubled in 2010, to 115. That is an astonishing rate of around one bombing every three days inside a country with which the US is not at war.
It was in yesterday’s DemocracyNow, Allan Narin suggested “what if a foreign country have their drones over NY, Chicago, Washington, LA or any other city in the US.” Persuing Radical Extremist Terrorists such as Barrack Obama, Dick Chenney, W.C. Bush, Hillary Clinton and the likes? Hiting their target but also killing 13, 20, 33 civiians on the process. What would be the response of the American people about the use of such weapon? How hypocritical that response would be?
Another thought: Ancient Greeks regarded the Bow and Arrow to be a Coward’s weapon because the adversary didn’t acctually fight but kept a distance… imagine what would they think of Drones.
OBAMA=WAR CRIMES
HAGUE NOW!
At the beginning of the insurgency after the invasion of Iraq, I can remember a US Army general complaining that the insurgents wouldn’t come out in the open and fight the US Army face to face. I wonder how he now feels about the use of drones operated from the United States?
Would you believe it, this is the same Obama who called “stupid” at a national press conference similar things a cop did to a Harvard professor in his own house. But I guess Afghans and Pakistanis don’t count. Maybe he’s afraid that if he reacts with the same rage as he exhibited on behalf of a black man, for Afghans and Pakistani people might think that he’s a Muslim. THE WHOLE WORLD HAS TAKEN NOTE OF HIS AMERICAN EXEPTIONALISM!!!
Well, at least I’m consistently dumb: I voted for Clinton….Bush….Obama…but only ONCE each so I guess I’m not that dumb!
O.K. We’ve had 2 years of “O” showing who/what he really is/stands for. What will be the next 2 years? I wonder how those members of the Nobel Prize feel today? I think they should demand their medal back. “O” doesn’t deserve it if he can’t be trusted to follow trough on his word! This should be a lesson on how not to choose a P.O.T.U.S. People can say all they want about the man, but when he turns his back on those that had faith & trust in him, he doesn’t deserve to hold the office. It doesn’t matter what the Tea party, the right wingnuts say, even the birthers or conservatives say, “O” just doesn’t have what it takes, he sold out the office, otherwise he should just have quit when he realized he was in over his paygrade.
“Two words for you: predator drones. You will never see it coming.” The crowd laughed, Obama smiled.
……Which tells us exactly who we are dealing with here…..
I can still remember those Americans crying and weeping and shouting “Yes we CAN” and “it’s a change we can believe in” and “it’s a time for a new world” and so on and so on…..And even intelligent Americans joined the happy clappy brigade…
How could you have been so fooled by him?
I remember being with my fellow Americans in the WTC on 9/11. Most of us were praying for mercy…now we’re cheering the people-splitting unseen/unheard stealth sock and awe. Do you think the “barbarian” world will be any more merciful with us than it was with the Romans?….Muslim mujahedeen avenging shahid bombers are paraphrasing Mao: “one, to, three….many Mubais!”
http://www.veoh.com/browse/videos/category/news/watch/v19614088ShcZQFJq
Note the cool, calm, murderous conversation on audio between the Pakistani handler and the killer boys. That’s what awaits us if we keep breeding revenge in seeking to quell our fears through mass killing of innocents a la IDF.