Coleen Rowley: Beheadings v. Drone Assassinations

[Karmadillo]

http://consortiumnews.com/2014/09/30/beheadings-v-drone-assassinations/

Beheadings v. Drone Assassinations
September 30, 2014

As gruesome as the Islamic Front’s videotaped beheadings are, there is ambiguity over whether the U.S. government’s death-by-drone is any less horrific, with some victims crawling about with severed limbs and others just collateral damage, a moral dilemma addressed by ex-FBI official Coleen Rowley.

By Coleen Rowley

Why do Americans hate beheadings but love drone killings? What accounts for our irrational response to these two very different forms of illegal execution, one very profitable and high-tech, usually resulting in many collateral deaths and injuries, and the other very low-tech, but provoking fear and righteous condemnation from the citizens whose country prefers the high-tech?

The answer lies in human psychology. And probably like the old observation about history, people who refuse to understand human psychology are doomed to be victims of psychological manipulation. How is it that even members of peace groups have now come to support U.S. bombing?



One woman framed the issue like this: “I request that we discuss and examine why the videotaped beheading of a human being is understood to be more egregious than the explosion (almost totally invisible to the public) of a human being by a missile or bomb fired from a drone.”

There are at least four main reasons that could explain why Americans care far more about the beheadings (thus far) of two Americans and one U.K. citizen than they care about the thousands of foreign victims of U.S. drone bombing. Here’s how people are likely being manipulated into believing that more U.S. bombing is the answer to such terroristic killings even when almost all military experts have admitted that it won’t work and “there’s no military solution”:

more...

[enough]

1. An excellent lens on our particular specific insanity.

The entire article must be read.

[Adsos Letter]

2. "...almost totally invisible to the public..."

Has a lot to do with it.

[G_j]

3. what peace groups have now come to support U.S. bombing?

I'm not aware of this.

[elias49]

4. K&R Thought provoking. nt