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| Airstrike hits Afghanistan |
.… By
Obeying international law, building
friendly relations, ending to aggression
Editing, re-reporting by
Carolyn Bennett
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| Drone |
U.S. government’s reckless foreign relations ─ Dem-Repubs agree
on Drones-PLUS
The executive government in Washington has yet to give in-depth
explanations as to why targeted killings are an option. RT is reporting today
that United States-led drone strikes ─ the remote-controlled, killing machines,
which are launched from tens of thousands of feet above the Earth and which target
“suspected insurgents” (and
indiscriminately kill untold hundreds if not thousands of civilians) ─ see no
end in sight given the status quo in U.S. federal government.
 |
| Drone attack Somalia |
Their performance on Tuesday made clear that U.S. Dem/Repub presidential
candidates not only agree on assassination drones; but they cavalierly brag
about this method of mass murder, a policy and practice that any sane person
understands to be a violation of domestic law, moral principle, and international
law.
The United States in recent years has ramped-up ‘counterterrorism’
tactics by expanding launching pads for drones around the world. Stealth
airships today, RT reports, “can be dispatched in moments across the Middle
East, the Arabian Peninsula or Northern Africa.” Domestically, these remote-controlled
hostile machines “are expected to be cleared [this year] by the U.S. Federal
Aviation Administration.”
But for killers in chief this is not enough.
 |
| U.S. Remote killing |
DRONE JUSTIFIER
“According to a chilling report published Tuesday evening in
the Washington Post,” RT reported that U.S. officials are going even further in
the practice of “hands-off” murder by technological advancement. The “most
advanced tactics” for decimating “alleged enemies without ever bringing them to
trial are not being eliminated but updated.”
The current “secret Oval Office-penned roster of persons
slated for extrajudicial execution” will soon be in the past, replaced by “a ‘disposition
matrix,’ more modernized terminology and technology [that allows] ─
counterterrorism
experts in Washington to plot not just who and how to kill; but where to find
them and what to do in order to ‘bring them to justice.’
 |
| October 3 airstrike |
Wrong on so many levels: in law, in morality, in human
rights
The report says, “The matrix contains the names of terrorism
suspects arrayed against an accounting of the resources being marshaled to
track them down, including sealed indictments and clandestine operations.…
The
database is designed to go beyond existing kill lists, mapping plans for the
‘disposition’ of suspects beyond the reach of U.S. drones
Step-by-step
procedures or algorithms are developed by computers as are answers justifying
full-fledged manhunts and executions of any alleged enemies of the state.
 |
| Drone protest Pakistan |
ASSASSINATION TODAY
Today in Pakistan, according to Press TV reports, “Local
officials said an unmanned aircraft fired two missiles at a compound in the
Tapi area near Miranshah, the major town of North Waziristan.” At least three
people died. Two weeks ago (October 11), “sixteen Pakistani people were killed
in a similar attack in South Waziristan tribal region” and “on October 10, a U.S.
assassination drone strike killed five people in North Waziristan’s Hurmuz
area.”
Yesterday, U.S. officials admitted killing civilians in
Eastern Afghanistan.
This is the United States status quo but not the end of the
story. There are options.
Though the corporate choreographers of the Dem/Repubs’ dance
this week denied participation of presidential candidates Jill Stein of the Green
Party and Rocky Anderson of the Justice Party (U.S.), they did have something
to say about drones and war and foreign policy. These are some Stein’s and
Anderson’s responses on critical issues of foreign relations.
|
B
|
oth Jill Stein and Rocky Anderson agreed that the status quo
in U.S. foreign policy is damaging to the United States and the world.
Outrageously inhuman policy
“Can you imagine,” Rocky Anderson asked, “if there were
Muslim countries coming into the United States and occupying us, invading us,
telling us how, where to run our government; and then running unmanned drones
over Canada, Mexico, the United States ─ determining who is going to live and
who is going to die, and in the process killing hundreds if not thousands of (we
don’t know how many) innocent men, women and children?”
Anderson exclaimed at the “outrage” and went on to point out
that “our national security is at risk long-term, because of the hostility and
hatred we are generating throughout [the Middle East].
“We have got to turn this around,” Anderson said, “and we,
the American people, can do it.”
 |
| Yemenis protest foreign meddling |
FOREIGN POLICY FAILURE
“We are seeing a very ill-conceived, irresponsible and
immoral war policy come back to haunt us,” Green Party presidential candidate Jill
Stein said. “United States foreign policies have been based, unfortunately, on
brute military force and wars for oil.”
Regarding the United States’ interference
in another conflict, in Syria, Stein reflected on the past decade of U.S. aggression
in Afghanistan and Iraq, amounting to great losses all over the world, and observed
a seemingly chronic condition in U.S. officialdom, “collective amnesia.”
Anderson said, regarding the
United States in Syria, “We are again trying to assert our will and dictate the
result.”
War policy impairs domestic affairs
Stein continued. With a “bloated
military-industrial-security budget,” trillions spent, and hundreds of
thousands (U.S. and foreign) dead, Stein said, we need to ─
Cut the military budget to right size
Bring our war dollars home.
Build true security here at home
U.S. bullies Middle East
Justice Party presidential
candidate Rocky Anderson said, “The policy failure has been in the way the
United States has treated so many nations in the Middle East. We’re like the
bully that never got counseling and we keep wondering why they don’t like us.”
Anderson pointed to “Our belligerence, our efforts to
control, to dominate and to make certain that we will always have that control
over the resources of Middle East nations” ─ this is the character that constitutes
a foreign policy of failure, he said.
Our
invasion and occupation of Iraq was completely illegal. Two United Nations
secretaries-general declared it illegal.
It
was a war of aggression, all done on a pack of lies.
Now,
we aggravate the situation by keeping bases in scores of nations, including those
of tyrants such as Saudi Arabia, bolstering these tyrants; and engaging in direct, unmanned drone strikes in
at least four sovereign nations, killing hundreds if not thousands of innocent
men, women and children.
We have a history of bullying
in foreign relations and we need to “start building friendly relationships,”
Rocky Anderson said. “This is a holistic problem, an imperialist foreign policy
that we must turn around; and if we join together, the American people can see
to it.”
 |
| Anti-American protests Middle East |
Violence has consequences
“It is very clear, Jill Stein
said, “that there is blowback across the Middle East. Not only unrest directed
at the Libyan embassy; but also at embassies across the Middle East (including
other nations of North and East Africa).
“In Afghanistan, U.S. soldiers
are being killed by police forces supposedly being trained by U.S. soldiers. Seventy-five
percent of Pakistanis identify the United States, not as their supporter or
their ally; but as their enemy.” 
To repair the failed U.S. foreign policy, Jill Stein added, “We
need to stop the flow of the arms: the U.S. militaristic export of arms, the support
of a profiteering war industry.” End this American complicity in “[throwing] gasoline
on the fires of virtually every ethnic, religious and national conflict around
the Middle East.”
Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein said under her
administration ─
We
will have a foreign policy based on international law and human rights and we
will use diplomacy.
Instead
of fighting wars for oil, we will be leading America in the fight to end global
warming and climate change.
“The American people can see to it,” Anderson said, “if we
join together.”
Sources and notes
“Kill-list 2.0: Obama’s ‘disposition matrix’ maps out
extrajudicial murders for years to come,”
October 24, 2012, http://rt.com/usa/news/disposition-matrix-kill-obama-146/
“U.S. assassination drone kills three in Pakistan’s North
Waziristan,” October 24, 2012, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/10/24/268490/us-terror-drone-kills-3-in-pakistan/
“Two U.S.-led troops killed in Afghanistan,” October 24,
2012,
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/10/24/268579/two-usled-troops-killed-in-afghanistan/
“U.S. admits to killing civilians in eastern Afghanistan,”
October 23, 2012,
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/10/23/268357/us-admits-to-killing-afghan-civilians/
“Exclusive: As Obama and Romney Agree on Afghan War, Israel
and Syria, Third Parties Give Alternative” (Transcript) October 23, 2012
Amy Goodman: “In the last of our exclusive ‘Expanding the
Debate’ series, we bring you highlights of our coverage of last night’s final
presidential debate between President Obama and Mitt Romney, with the added
voices of third-party candidates…
“In an evening focused on foreign policy, both Obama and
Romney shared wide agreement on issues including support for the Israeli
government, the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan, and opposition to
U.S. military involvement in Syria. But they clashed over a few key points,
including military spending, negotiating with Iran, and responding to the
Libyan embassy attack. Before a live audience in San Rafael, California, we
aired the Obama-Romney debate and paused the tape to insert into the discussion
[Jill Stein of the Green Party and Rocky Anderson of the Justice Party], responding
in real time to the same questions put to the Democratic and Republican Party candidates,”
http://www.democracynow.org/2012/10/23/exclusive_as_obama_and_romney_agree#transcript
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Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy
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