General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: America Is Preparing to Murder Its 5th Citizen by 'Remote Assassination' [View all]Maedhros
(10,007 posts)Last edited Thu Feb 13, 2014, 05:09 PM - Edit history (2)
In an actual war, with an actual battlefield, there are two armed groups in conflict with one another. These groups are engaged in a firefight in an attempt to capture contested ground or to destroy each others' forces. This firefight may be occurring in an urban locale, and there may be civilians on or near the battlefield. In such a situation the fog of war may indeed result in unwanted civilian casualties. For example, an air strike may be called in on a church steeple housing an enemy artillery observer and inadvertently kill the civilians hiding in the church basement. This kind of thing happens all the time in actual, real wars.
But our drone campaigns are not taking place under conditions of actual, real war. Drone strikes are not made in the midst of firefights, against defensive strongpoints or on troop formations assembled for the attack. The strikes are falling on weddings and funerals, on marketplaces and farms and schools, on people going about their normal lives. Drone murder apologists want to use the "fog of war" excuse to explain away civilian casualties as "necessary" without conditions being present to justify such an explanation.
Exactly what activities are this accused U.S. citizen involved in that has earned him the death penalty? Drone murder apologists claim, without any evidence, that this accused citizen is "actively waging war" against the United States. How? The United States is not at war with anyone. There are certainly individuals and organizations plotting crimes against the United States, but our legal process does not allow for preemptive killing of suspected criminals unless they present an imminent threat to the well being of others. No such imminent threat has been demonstrated.