American Terrorists

After listening to arguments about drone strikes on OPB this weekend, I have formulated my own opinion. They are heinous and criminal. As a tax-paying American citizen, I am now a terrorist. And so are you, my friends.

Terrorism, as I understand it, is committing acts or threatening to commit acts to instill fear into the average citizen for religious, political, financial or even idealistic purposes.

The ultimate--and now, almost cliche--example of a terrorist act is 9/11. On September 11, 2001, the average citizen was minding his or her own business when we were attacked. Not only did the terrorists kill thousands of Americans, but it also instilled fear and changed so much about the way the average American lives. Though it seems absurd to you and me, the persons involved in committing the act felt that it was their obligation, their calling, their responsibility to do this.

President Obama and his administration think it is their obligation, calling and responsibility to use drone strikes to take out terrorists. There are many advantages to drone strikes compared to boots-on-the-ground: less US collateral damage and cost-savings to name the big ones.

BUT innocent, non-terrorist persons are being killed as collateral damage. We are instilling fear not just in our known enemies, but the average citizen. And the saddest part is that the majority of Americans aren't blinking an eye over it. By all the definitions of terrorism we have used as Americans, we now need to point the fingers at ourselves. We kill innocent people for our own interests. We are terrorists.

At least when we had boots-on-the-ground, a large part of what we did in the Middle East was try to win the "hearts and minds of the people".  Any progress in this--if there was indeed, any--is moot due to drone strikes. Drone strikes are cold and detached, unsuspecting, impersonal and vicious, as are the ones dictating their use.

Furthermore, by being terrorists, we are creating more feelings of animosity and hostility in the Middle East. Terrorist organizations might increase in size as a reaction to drone strikes. We have acted like the Bad Guy--we are the Bad Guy. I don't blame them for rising up against us.

And who the hell do we think we are? We can tell other countries what weapons they can and cannot have, but we are now telling the international community to mind their own business? We only accept international law if it works for our agenda. We are bullies kicking over everyone else's sandcastles on the playground, but no one is allowed to come near our sandbox.

Again, my ideas are only beginning to formulate, but I am strong in my opinion. For my part as a US citizen, I apologize to the international community. I am so sorry for the losses and tragedy we have caused.

Just say no to extra-judicial killings

I am no soldier.  This is my disclaimer. 

I have never believed pre-emptive war to be righteous (it tends to be more about geopolitical chess than "protecting our freedom" in our post-colonial modern age); even if the ideals seem pure, all wars are won with ideas, while good people on both sides die.

Sure, strength of arms does win battles, but ideas are the foundation for societies, and all that we do.  If an occupier fails to win the hearts and minds of the occupied, than the occupier's time is limited.  We are always changing.

I support my brothers and sisters im the armed services, I just happen to recognize that if I was (or related to) an Iranian, North Korean, Afghan, or insurrectionist in any society, I would be hard pressed to be in any position to not support my brothers and sisters in those societies.

Fortunately,  I am a simple American  with internet access, and there is no war here on the soil I reside on.  Therefore, it is easy for me to love peace.

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Drone strikes, like assassinations, are extra-judicial killings.  Everyone who dies by them can be labelled as terrorist, extremist, or any other term the powers that be (government, media, your libertarian uncle) decide, because the dead have no opportunity to defend themselves to the living.

You want to support the troops?  Fine.  Support them and the evil they perpetuate in the name of your nation state all you want.  They are just following orders.  The problem lies in supporting the systemic abuse of executive and legislative authority that allows these things to keep happening.

While no war is moral, the war on terrorism is particularly lacking in morality,  because it is terribly hard to succeed in a war on a noun.  Such wars tend to be indefinite.  At least World War 2 had an ending point.  This war on terrorism will go on forever, because anyone can be labelled a terrorist--or, in the case of folks killed by targeted drone strikes, a potential terrorist.  Now that we are killing people based on what they might do (Iraq, Afghanistan, strikes in Yemen and Pakistan) there is even less accountability.  Our government is not worthy of our faith when it refuses to stop changing the rules.

Every time somebody dies in a drone strike, we have to take it on faith that person was a bad guy, or might do something bad.  It is bad enough that we haven't evolved to the point of seeing every human as a member of the same collective whole, but even worse when we do nothing when our government says any person, American or not, is susceptible to death by drone based on a pretense that may or may not be false.

Everyone deserves a fair trial.  If you have a gun and are killing people, then of course you are more likely to die.  But if you have done nothing but irritate the wrong government, what is to stop any government from sending a drone after you?

That is the slippery slope.  As soon as drone technology is in the hands of all nations, all nations can use the doctrine of pre-emption to kill...anyone.  We as Americans continue to set the standard for pre-emptive warfare and extra-judicial killings in violation of international law.  Let us hope no other nations follow our example, or it may be you at the receiving end of a drone strike from them, if your own government does not get to you first.

I do not mean to be so faithless in America; I was born here and I love this country and its people.  That is why I am so distressed when I see freedom dying as people slowly accept the imposition of a borderless police state in hopes of preservation of the illusion of safety.  We are better than this.  Everyone deserves due process.  Drone strikes are not due process.

Death is the next adventure.

Maria and I started this little blog with the intent of discussing current issues, and while this is certainly a passion of ours, I have to write of my spiritual evolution as well from time to time.

My grandpa lays dying slowly in front of me as I key these words from a smart phone on the hospice wi-fi.  I have been a practicing skeptical agnostic for most of my life, but something is changing.

I am not here to proselytize or preach, because I am still on my own spiritual journey, but Grandpa's steady faith has been hugely inspiring and uplifting to me.  He is serene.  While folks like me have doubts and questions, he is comforted by the knowledge that he is going to meet Jesus, and see his wife of over sixty years in heaven soon.

I have always taken a more esoteric spiritual interpretation of the Bible and its stories.  I figured heaven and hell can be states of mind and ways of being.  Striving to walk the walk of being good not for divine reward but for the natural rewards of practicing love, kindness and empathy always made the most sense to me as a human being. 

"There is no such thing as hell
But you can make it if you try
There might come a day
When emotion can be quantified

But as of now there's no proof necessary, no proof necessary, no proof necessary its only in your mind, your mind, your mind, your mind."

-"Prove It" by Bad Religion

These lyrics summed up my beliefs pretty tidily as an agnostic man.  I never had the heart to fully commit to the atheism of the man I admired most growing up (another story), but I took refuge in science and other rational philosophical ideas detached from the necessity of a creator.

I have come to a crossroads.   I am finding Faith, as my grandparents prayed I would, and it is my own.  Ideas from all that I have read and experienced in my spiritual questing swirl in my head as I attempt to reconcile some sort of unifying thread in my pattern of belief.  Science and spirit.  God(dess) and reason.  The Great Spirit above and behind it all: Creation and its entropic balance, Uncreated.

It is a journey, and I have to practice it every day.

I have a lot to learn, and nothing to preach; I only have one plea--Don't give up hope, no matter how hard things seem.  Every breath brings renewal.  Every day is brand new.  Every moment is an opportunity to grow.

May the one true God bless you all on your journeys through this moment, and all others, no matter who you are.  If you prefer a Mother Goddess to Father God, that is ok too.  It is just imagery.  I have faith that my whole self is known to my Creator, above all silly words my human mouth may spout.  Jesus has helped me, personally, but perhaps if I had been raised in a society with a different prophet (or holy one), then that would be the one I know.  I acknowledge this.  

Therefore I pray your personal journey brings you to the right path up the mountain.  Only you know your path, and my heart is with you, my friend.  Blessings upon you and your spirit.

So be it.

And Grandpa, I love you.