A surprising testimony from Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) when pit up against the right-wing jingo Rep. Peter King (R-NY) on CNN. Woolsey says the drone war is creating more enemies than it is eliminating and that America is setting itself up for blowback. She also threw in some commentary about how hypocritical is the U.S. use of drones, considering Washington would not allow other nations to engage in this kind of lawless, borderless, remote-control war.
“It’s such a trend to dehumanize warfare. It’s machines and computers doing the job. You know what, Candy, this is not video games, these are real people and it’s real death and we’re making real enemies around the world by continuing with the drone strikes,” Woolsey told CNN’s Candy Crowley on “State of the Nation.”
The congresswoman said instead the country should be investing in “a different kind of security” and warned of unforeseen repercussions from the drone program.
“We’re setting a standard for all other nations that when they’re ready if they want to, they can send drones at the United States,” Woolsey said, adding later that “what goes around comes around, and those drones are going to come right back at us.”
I have to part ways with Woolsey on this notion of “helping other countries with their development needs” and what not, but she’s on the right track regarding drones. See here and here for more of the growing chorus of official and expert opinion saying the drone war is murder, blowback, or both.
Yup. At least once a week I find myself saying that it’s only a matter of time. It simply makes no logical sense that a country could conduct such operations and never be repaid in kind.
There are more people like her in the Democratic Party; they're just scared of standing up. It took at lot of courage to confront Peter King, on CNN no less.
To more cynical readers: Doves aren't welcome in DC. While a cautious realist may be heard more than usual, outright doves are universally reviled. Ron Paul is a man of exceptional fortitude; so, apparently, is Lynn. For many others, standing alone is very scary. I have no doubt there are a few real doves in the Republican Party too.
My advice? Antiwar.com should write an open letter that everyone can sign. It should convey the following: To be a dove in DC takes courage. Hawks may talk tough, but that is only to cover a hidden weakness. It may seem like you are all alone up there. But you aren't alone. Try talking to your colleagues, whatever their party. You'll out who the doves are. And out here, people of all political stripes have your back on this if you stand. You aren't alone. You have friends next to you and out here.
Let's stand up to these bullies together.
It could be made into a video. I think some Beatles tunes would go well with it. The country is sick of cynicism. I am sick of cynicism. We're all sick of hiding behind an armor of cynicism.
"There's nothing you can do that can't be done. Nothing you can sing that can't be sung…It's easy."
"All ya need is love, da da da da daaa….love, love, love, oh yeah"
Noble sentiments my friend. I too was there when hippie girls were putting flowers down National Guard
rifle barrels and the aroma of pot wafted around the crowd and indeed into the ranks of the cops, jackbooted, helmeted, behind their Ray-Bans, with long heavy black clubs they rhythmically slapped into their left hands……..it was a dream, a dream indeed which dissipated with the murder of four
unarmed flower-carrying students at Kent State……..
And from time to time the dream wells up in us, out of the best angels of our nature….
but it is a dream nonetheless, and may we honor ourselves for retaining the dream, under God's
Providence…..
I assume this is the last time we will ever see this woman on television again
U.S. use of drones, considering Washington would not allow other nations to engage in this kind of lawless, borderless, remote-control war.
It just struck me: I knew Peter King was a neoconservative, but it is just shocking to hear him say this stuff with a straight face. It's all right there. All that patriotic garbage, 'peace through strength', 'America as a force for good', etc. And this is accepted (right now) without question.
I have every reason to believe this will be rejected one day. The rationales for the wars are increasingly strained. Outside the Right (From Jonah Goldberg to outright fascists), nobody accepts Peter King's notions. Even if they dismiss any criticism of the United States, most people are legitimately sick of the war and all the loss of freedoms it has entailed. It has not made us any safer. All that the past ten years (although, of course, it is more complex than that) has given us is fear. Fear that aggrandized the State & corporations (always has been hard to distinguish between the two).
No more fear. At the same time, to fight the Peter King's of the world requires just that: to fight them. It doesn't matter if we win or lose, because it is time for us to stand up to them and refuse to let them make us feel powerless.
It's pure anti-Muslim hatred by a bunch of Zionist psychopaths who have either bought all the big lies and propaganda or have helped to engineer it.
The Zionist psychopaths, whether they are Jewish or Xtian, know that it will cause blowback. In fact, they are hoping it will cause blowback. What the media, including antiwar.com, is failing to report is the simple fact that the engineers of the drone warfare we are witnessing are the fascist aggressors and they are killing Muslims with drones because they know it will create more enemies for them to kill. Understand?
When blowback from the drone wars occurs, what happens next? Some kind of peace-plan? No way! Blowback will be used again and again as a just reason for more drones and more mass-murder, and that will lead to more blowback, which will lead to more drones and mass-murder, etc…. until all the poor Muslims are gone.
It's not just war, it is GENOCIDE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Peter King is a jingoistic bully in the tradition of McCarran and McCarthy during the "Red Scare" the analogue to the present "War on Terror". There should be no place in Congress for the type of venality he peddles, and the fact that his fellow legislators have enabled or tolerated it for so long tells us something about them as well.
This man should be investigated and run out of Washington for the damage he has caused to the national interest.