At long last, President Obama has done something right. He has reversed a long-term bad policy whereby US presidents restrained themselves from assassinating known enemies of the country. Unlike Odysseus, Obama has cut himself loose from the mast of his ship, in order to heed the sound of the Sirens. Congratulations, Mr. President, for acting to preserve and protect the country that you represent.
The United States has been at war since September 11, 2001 against a network of terrorists that is determined to destroy millions of US citizens through recourse to weapons of mass destruction. The Middle East is riddled with corrupt governments that are either too weak to eliminate such pools of excrement or who are extending protection to their activities. Pakistan, Iran, Syria, Yemen, Mali, North Korea, Cuba, Somalia host such vermin. The United States cannot wage war against all such nations, nor should it do so.
Therefore, the policy of deploying US drones to hunt down and exorcise the vermin assumes high-ranking as a cost-effective measure in defending America. President Obama came to office condemning his predecessor for a less aggressive policy. He has learned on the job that President Bush was too kind and considerate and should have adopted a much more aggressive role. A wise man sometimes changes his mind. For the first time, there is a fleeting whiff of wisdom permeating the Obama White House.
“Rather than capture terrorists – which produces the most valuable intelligence on al Qaeda – Mr. Obama has relied almost exclusively on drone attacks, and he has thereby been able to dodge difficult questions over detention. But those deaths from the sky violate personal liberty far more than the waterboarding of three al Qaeda leaders ever did.” John Yoo, ‘The Real Problem With Obama’s Drone Memo’, The Wall Street Journal, February 8, 2013
Professor Yoo is understandably angered by what appears to be Obama’s crass hypocrisy. However, responding outside of the vicious attack that Obama launched against Professor Yoo, I prefer to take the view that the President has simply learned that targeted aggression is the best form of defense.
Go drones, Mr. President! The more the merrier.
Tags: al qaeda vermin, cost effective-aggression, drones, Obama doctrine, wipe out do not build
February 16, 2013 at 3:49 am |
Without a license to kill, could a policy even be called a defense policy?
So far as I can see, the only objection to drones specifically, as opposed to other weapons, is that they allow such safety to the pilots, and such careful selection of targets, and such low (though not zero) likelihood of collateral damage, that they are thought to seduce a pacifist (not to day defeatist) president into military action he would otherwise eschew, preferring defeat through abstinence to bad press.
There may be something to this allegation. But like you, Professor Rowley, I cannot agree that it’s a bad thing.
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