Blogs Sep 30, 2011 at 6:41 am

Comments

106
I have not seen anything yet to suggest to me that they are killing people who are not active in terrorist operations.

Oh, you mean like this?

http://www.rawa.org/temp/runews/rawagall…

Or this?

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/cl…

Or these?

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/27/world/…

Look, you trust Obama, we get it. I trust people who don't lie and who don't destroy the lives of innocent people for no good reason. I trust some people in the government. I don't think 9/11 was an inside job or that we didn't go to the moon or that climate change isn't real. I believe in evidence.

So I don't trust government employees who lie or destroy the lives of whistleblowers while ignoring the crimes of people who design and implement torture programs. Even if they are Democrats.

I'm sure that if it were your family members in the photos in the first link, you might wonder if our tactics abroad are really as well thought-out as you think they are now. But they're not your family members. The innocent people who died the other times we've tried to kill al-Awlaki weren't your family members. Don't you find it at all interesting that since 9/11, we've killed so many foreign civilians (in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia) and terrorists have killed so few (if any?) U.S. civilians? Don't you find it interesting that the opinion of the U.S. is lower in the Middle East now than it was under Bush?

How is it "self-defense" when all the civilians who are dying are foreigners?
107
"we are at war and he had joined with the enemy. Why are you defending the memory of a traitorous and vile person?"

I feel like my made up quotes represent this and your previous statements very well. Oh my use of speech is repugnant and offensive to you? Might want to call in the drones. Just to clear up for the oblivious: you were bordering on Bush defender bullshit by implying that I am a terrarist lover. Hence my statement of equivalence. "N-word" was Other to people before. Now it's Muslim alleged terrarists. Both categories used to help us live with hurting the Other, most of whom were not affiliated at all with Al Qaeda.
108
@80: Ok, troll, are you going to dispute that? I don't find "HAHAHAHA" to be a very convincing argument, though I realize articulating an argument isn't what trolling is about, is it?
109
LJM:

I saw that was badly phrased after I posted it. I knew someone would make a point of it. What I meant was, I have not seen anything yet to suggest that the people targeted by these drone attacks were not active in terrorist activities, and therefore, appropriate targets. Of course, when you are trying to kill a terrorist, whether at a distance or up close and personal, sometimes innocent people may also be injured or killed. The person making the decision to proceed has to balance the risk to innocent bystanders against the importance of the target and the possibility of delaying the attack until fewer bystanders are at risk. I would prefer that innocents not be harmed but I do not think we should just give up trying to kill or capture terrorists due to the risks to bystanders. Of course, the terrorists' main goal is to kill innocent bystanders.
110
"Ok, troll, are you going to dispute that?"

It doesn't require disputing any more than an assertion that the moon is made of green cheese requires disputing. You're ridiculous.
111
Yes, the Rosenbergs were executed as spies, a lesser crime than treason. This came as a shock to the country and to the world. They were also Communists and Jews, which is the real reason they were executed. Confessing and naming other Communists would have saved their lives, but they held their silence all the way to the chair. They didn't believe the US should be the only nuclear superpower, and indeed, Mutually Assured Destruction has kept the US from using the bomb since WWII. I daresay many of our own young Slog socialists would applaud them on this point. My own point, which I didn't make clearly enough and now wish I hadn't made at all, is that al-Awlaki isn't quietly living his American life, engaging in a war of ideas and information, making himself available for arrest should he be caught as the Rosenbergs did. He was aiding and abetting terrorists (not enemies in a cold war of ideas) on foreign soil and actively encouraging the killing of Americans.
112
"Yes, the Rosenbergs were executed as spies, a lesser crime than treason."

Espionage against your own country IS treason
113
@110: That's what I thought. You can't. In your little troll brain a statement drawn from historical analysis is ridiculous. Ok. Keep on trolling.
114
You are kind of a troll, Reader01. And with an ironic name, too. Read your history.
115
Pirates were hunted by the English, the United States, and others because they plundered shipping lanes and often killed/kidnapped the crews of the ships they attacked, not because of some notion of GOTTA KEEP THOSE PEOPLE FROM GETTING UPPITY!!! What trash.

And 114, I'll assume that was in reference to the pirate thing and not the Rosenbergs. The sentencing judge called it treason, because that's what espionage against your own country is.
116
Ha! Troll is still swallowing propaganda from a fallen empire, no wonder it buys into the talking points from the current one.

Shipping lanes. Think for a second, what KIND of shipping lanes? Around the Caribbean? Oh, yeah, the slave trade.
117
"Ha! Troll is still swallowing propaganda from a fallen empire"

Ha! Moron still feels the need to make shit up. The British slave trade was outlawed in 1803. They continued prosecuting pirates well after that, and in 1827 declared that ships trafficking in slaves were also conducting piracy and attacked them as well. The overwhelming majority of pirates were Dutch, French and English themselves. Stop spewing bullshit.
118
Piracy in the Caribbean was pretty much dead by the late 18th century. True, most pirates were Dutch, French, and English, but had escaped from indentured servitude, a euphemism for slavery. And yes, by the strickest definition of piracy, many did attack imperial vessels. Not that I have a problem with that. It is not the whole story, however, and the war on pirates was used as a justification for many other horrific things, similar to the "War on Terror." I maintain that the bigger threat to empire was not the attack on shipping routes, but the notion that sailors and slaves could liberate themselves and live in freedom.

Well trolled Reader01. I'm out.
120
"Of course, the terrorists' main goal is to kill innocent bystanders."

Yeah, and we're so much more effective at achieving their goal for them. Let's all pat ourselves on the back on that mission accomplished.
122
where are the anti-capital punishment bedwetters?
123
what-
they killed this guy just like that-
without waterboarding him or torturing him or anything?
wimps....
124
121
the green guy looks tired.
what if we give him a hand?
125
his guy was trashed. Busted several times for soliciting prostitutes in the States... but wants to wage Jihad on us? Glad he is dead. #7 & #10 can suck it.
126
Y'all know sand niggas hate faggotry, right?

    Please wait...

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