Institutionalizing Extra-Judicial Execution: Obama is a Mass Murderer
Featured in our news section, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism has published an important new investigation into America’s drone war in Pakistan, finding that many strikes have deliberately launched follow-up attacks, killing people “who had gone to help rescue victims or were attending funerals.” As Glenn Greenwald points out (again) the Bureau’s methodology for tallying civilian deaths is very rigid and “virtually guarantees significant under-counting of civilian deaths,” but nonetheless the report finds that “at least 50 civilians were killed in follow-up strikes when they had gone to help victims” and “more than 20 civilians have also been attacked in deliberate strikes on funerals and mourners.” The high-end estimate for total casualties in the U.S. drone war, according to the Bureau, is 3,019, including up to 815 civilians (175 of them children).
Here’s what I think is the most important passage of the report:
Naz Modirzadeh, Associate Director of the Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research (HPCR) at Harvard University, said killing people at a rescue site may have no legal justification.
‘Not to mince words here, if it is not in a situation of armed conflict, unless it falls into the very narrow area of imminent threat then it is an extra-judicial execution’, she said. ‘We don’t even need to get to the nuance of who’s who, and are people there for rescue or not. Because each death is illegal. Each death is a murder in that case.’
Even if most of the public doesn’t know these facts, millions of informed people do know. What’s interesting is that Obama’s image isn’t tarnished at all, because, after all, he is the president. A common refrain among libertarians is that if commonly accepted government actions were carried out by private individuals, it would be thought of as unthinkable violence and theft unachievable by even the most hardened criminals. Consider Obama, who has spearheaded this policy of rapidly intensified drone campaign in northwest Pakistan, as a private individual. Of course, this reduces him to a mass murderer. But his image and prestige remains that of a Presidential Leader of the Free World and a Nobel Peace Prize winner to boot, not of Ted Bundy.
Another quick thought experiment, also brought up in the Bureau’s report, is to think what the reaction of the Obama administration would be if their drone war were being carried out by another state, say Russia or China. Very clearly, it would be vehemently condemned. Obama’s top counterterrrorism adviser, John Brennan, defended the drone program with this: “Because we are engaged in an armed conflict with al- Qaeda, the United States takes the legal position that, in accordance with international law, we have the authority to take action against al-Qaeda and its associated forces.” Indeed, that is almost precisely the excuse used by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in killing well over 5,000 Syrians. He says his country is being threatened by terrorists and he is legitimately protecting Syrians and his government with appropriate force. Obama responded to that excuse by calling Assad’s crackdown “indiscriminate violence” and highlighted the “murder” of innocent Syrians “including women and children.” After his administration pushed for a UN Security Council resolution aimed at removing Assad from power, Obama said, ”Any government that brutalizes and massacres its people does not deserve to govern.”
And what about someone who has institutionalized extra-judicial execution and committed mass murder of innocent men, women, and children? Does he deserve to govern?
WashingtonDC goddamn
February 5th, 2012 at 11:03 am
Obama has passed Osama, but Obama has slaughtered more innocent children.
Rop Payne
February 5th, 2012 at 5:47 pm
Does he deserve to govern? Actually in the brutal light of reality it is exactly what makes him deserve to govern at least in the eyes of the money men who put Obama in office. If you want to be president you have to be willing to murder. It just so happens that Obama enjoys it immensely. This is contrary to what his defenders claim of course but then they are wrong about a good many things. I notice all the “serious” candidates including Ron Paul have received a good deal of money from the so-called defense industry which ought to be called the war industry just as the department of defense was once called the department of war. The latter moniker was the more accurate one.
Orville H. Larson
February 6th, 2012 at 9:56 pm
Glaser is right to mention Glenn Greenwald. The latter is a tenacious exponent of civil liberties and the "rule of law" both at home and abroad. Be sure to read his columns at Salon.com.
Is Barack ("The Peace Laureate") O-Bomb-a a war criminal? Sure. He invades a country (Libya) that was no threat to the United States; he rains death from the sky on countries with whom we're not at war; and he's oblivious to constitutional and treaty obligations regarding warmaking, war crimes, and the like. But then, the U.S. Government is off the rails.
Keep nullification and secession in mind. . . .
Walter Cole
February 7th, 2012 at 6:04 am
Obama-Osama: I know one of them is supposed to be the good guy, but damned, I´m getting so confused who is who these days. OK, should I take the kind looking bearded guy, you know, the one who looks like Jesus, as the good Oxama? That´s the only way I can distinguish the two, because they commit the same acts.
US Drone Kills 8 in Northwest Pakistan -- News from Antiwar.com
February 7th, 2012 at 8:37 pm
[...] administration has launched hundreds of strikes in the past few years, despite the drone campaign resting on very shaky legal and moral ground. Naz Modirzadeh, Associate Director of the Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research [...]
Second US Drone Strike in Two Days Kills Another 3 People in Pakistan -- News from Antiwar.com
February 9th, 2012 at 6:02 pm
[...] administration has launched hundreds of strikes in the past few years, despite the drone campaign resting on very shaky legal and moral ground. Naz Modirzadeh, Associate Director of the Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research [...]
US Restarts Drone War in Pakistan With Back-To-Back Strikes « Stop Making Sense
February 11th, 2012 at 5:04 am
[...] administration has launched hundreds of strikes in the past few years, despite the drone campaign resting on very shaky legal and moral ground. Naz Modirzadeh, Associate Director of the Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research [...]
Two US Drone Strikes Kill Up to 21 People in Pakistan -- News from Antiwar.com
February 16th, 2012 at 2:13 pm
[...] Obama administration claims drone strikes kill senior terrorists, some have argued the killings are extra-judicial executions, murdering people who have not been charged with a crime or been offered a trial against [...]
How Many Calories In A Potato
February 22nd, 2012 at 4:58 am
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AP Study Finds Most Drone War Casualties Are Militants -- News from Antiwar.com
February 25th, 2012 at 3:53 pm
[...] has killed over 800 innocent men, women, and children in a country that is not a declared war zone is still criminal. The drone program is technically classified and the U.S. government refuses to make any [...]
Politics | Pearltrees
March 1st, 2012 at 5:44 am
[...] ‘Not to mince words here, if it is not in a situation of armed conflict, unless it falls into the very narrow area of imminent threat then it is an extra-judicial execution’, she said. ‘We don’t even need to get to the nuance of who’s who, and are people there for rescue or not. Because each death is illegal. Each death is a murder in that case.’ Institutionalizing Extra-Judicial Execution: Obama is a Mass Murderer « Antiwar.com Blog [...]