… AND MAKE AMERICA LESS SAFE
By Ron Paul || Earlier this month, CIA-operated drones killed as many as 55 people in Yemen in several separate strikes. Although it was claimed that those killed were “militants,” according to press reports at least three civilians were killed and at least five others wounded. That makes at least 92 U.S. drone attacks against Yemen during the Obama administration, which have killed nearly 1,000 people including many civilians.
The latest strikes seem to contradict President Barack Obama’s revised guidelines for targeted killings, which he announced last May. At the time he claimed that drones would only be used against those who posed a “continuing and imminent threat to the American people,” that there must be a “near certainty that no civilians will be killed or injured,” and that safeguards to prevent civilian casualties were at “the highest standard we can set.”
None of these criteria seem to have been met. In fact, the threshold in Yemen is considerably lower than the president claims. In 2012 President Obama approved “signature strikes” in Yemen, a criteria for attack that is not based on actual or suspected wrongdoing, but rather on a vague set of behaviors that are said to be shared by militants.
This means that the individuals killed in the most recent drone attacks were not necessarily terrorists or even terrorist suspects. They were not proven to have committed any crime, nor were they proven to have been members of al-Qaeda or any terrorist organization. Yet they were nevertheless targeted for attack, and the sovereignty of Yemen was violated in the process.
Some may claim that we need to kill suspected terrorists overseas so that we can be safer at home. But do the drone attacks in places like Yemen really make us safer? Or are they actually counter-productive? One thing we do know is that one of the strongest recruiting tools for al-Qaeda is the U.S. being over there using drones against people or occupying Muslim countries.
How can we get rid of all the people who may seek to do us harm if our drone and occupation policies continually create even more al-Qaeda members? Are we not just creating an endless supply of tomorrow’s terrorists with our foolish policies today? What example does it set for the rest of the world if the U.S. acts as if it has the right to kill anyone, anywhere, based simply on that individual’s behavior?
We should keep all of this in mind when the U.S. administration lectures world leaders about how they should act in the 21st century.
Recently, the U.S. administration admonished Russian president Vladimir Putin for his supposed interference in the affairs of Ukraine, saying that violating the sovereignty of another country is not the 21st century way of conducting international relations. I agree that sovereignty must be respected. But what about the U.S. doing the same thing in places like Yemen? What about the hundreds and even thousands killed by U.S. drones not because they were found guilty of a crime, but because they were exhibiting “behaviors” that led a CIA drone operator safely hidden in New Mexico or somewhere to pull the trigger and end their lives?
What about a president who regularly meets in secret with his advisors to determine who is to be placed on a “kill list” and who refuses to even discuss the criteria for placement on that list? Is this considered acceptable 21st century behavior?
The Obama Administration needs to rein in the CIA and its drone attacks overseas. They make a mockery of American values and they may well make us less safe.
Ron Paul is a former U.S. Congressman from Texas and the leader of the pro-liberty, pro-free market movement in the United States. His weekly column – reprinted with permission – can be found here.
39 comments
Paul just can’t get his mind around the word “former”.
Send Ron in armed to the teeth, how about all politicians, i’d feel alot safer then.
Amen!
They send our youthful treasure, our best and brightest to die for their wars!
They sit back in their ivory Towers living off the taxpayers money, safe and sound!
I’m not sure about the best and brightest part… maybe some of them were.
Bravest sound OK?
Yes, I think that’s reasonable.
Agreed, except that unlike a lot of them, Ron Paul actually believes that starting wars for the sake of starting wars, or whatever financial benefit they may cause some people, is wrong. Ron is one of the few who speaks out against this indefensible practice which has become more and more common, as time goes on.
Old Republican is the answer.
Paul was full of shit as a congressman and a candidate, he was never cool or a straight-talker or a hip libertarian. he is a cynical opportunist who created a market niche for a family business living off taxpayers
Please tell us how you really feel about him.
Doofus is the word that comes to mind every time I hear “Ron Paul”
SHH.
*sighs*
there is no sanity clause.
Your comment does prove your name right: idiotwind. You really should get a life and stay away from listening to the presstitute media as they have a propensity to brainwash “idiots” like you.
We can distract the world from this by backing Palin’s new waterboarding initiative.
And, Ron Paul’s support for various seditious militia groups over the years doesn’t undermine American values…much less American national security?
Of course, freedom and liberty don’t deserve to be defended.
Let me get this straight. In a country that spys on every citizen’s phone calls, emails, texts, and financial transaction… and that claims it has the right to kill any citizen that the seated president determines, without due process, is a “terrorist”, you believe that citizens arming and organizing in response is “undermining our nation’s values and security”? Whose “values and security” are you referring to???
Go drones!
Funny how war mongers tend to be neocons. Can they now be the minions of the antichrist? Think about it, they are supposed to be a majority. Surely you are evil if you support machines going in and killing whoever may happen to be in a certain area? Right? It sounds like the apocalypse. Pretty much like something out of the “Terminator” movie. Congratulations you anti-christian s.o.b.’s. I’m sure you are also part of the crowd that shouted boo to Ron Paul quoting the golden rule. You all hate the bible, all things good, and you embrace evil. What is most despicable is how you are all such great deceivers claiming to believe something you do not really believe.
Onward Christian Soldiers, is my favorite hymm, even if it’s a machine. Who’s side are you on?
Onward Christian Soldiers. Hymm wrote when Europe was out of men to fight in the crusade. They sent a bunch of kids around 12 or 13 years old to die for Jesus. In Alexandria, the army ran out of food. They were told that God wanted them to eat the Muslims, who by choosing a false faith were surely no higher than animals. Onward Christian Soldiers!!! Totally evil.
Uh, yeah, not so much. Onward Christian Soldiers was written in 1865 as a processional for a religious ceremony. It was almost immediately adopted by the Salvation Army as their anthem. The first line ends with as to war, it is not a battle hymn but rather a riding cry to action by Christians.
I stand corrected. It was Fairest Lord Jesus. The title confused me. My apologies. The rest is correct.
Rest of what?
Sorry, wrong again. Schönster Herr Jesu, was probably sung by crusaders as they marched to Jerusalem but it was not written by or about crusaders.
Very good intell Col. That’s what was needed, along with people that could be so brutal as to offend God. Fear is the best weapon, not logic. Animals as Solitary Pillar distains. See, it works, UUHH-RRAAHH. Not men who are robots, men without fear!!!!!!
I was in the Marine Corps. I would eat ANYTHING to kill the enemy. Best for you to stay on the critic sidelines at home.
You would have made a great soldier for Hitler. Hell anybody for that matter. I admire your cold-blooded kill anyone you are told to attitude.
To answer your question, I am not like a wolf in a pack. If I sided with some people for a good cause it is not like I then lose all judgment and would support anything they wanted to do just so I could belong. Such thinking is representative of weak minds – sheep.
Remind me about events such as Joshua and Jericho. When the Germans bombed London, when the Japs attacked Pearl Harbor, when the British and US fire bombed Dresden, etc. who was on the side of the antichrist?
Are you talking for Jesus? You sound just like him.
Us liberals agree with Paul on this issue. It’s the source of a portion of Obama’s disapproval rating.
Zoink?
Ron Paul is right. Drone wars equal state terrorism.
…and it reduces the number of terrorists eligible for torture.
Actually, it creates a new generation of victims as well as potential terrorists.
oh, good! That makes more terrorists Palin can waterboard!
I heard that the Oathkeepers abandoned Bunkerville because of a rumor that AG Holder was sending a “hot drone”.