Assassination by Drone to Remain Presidential
Prerogative
With
regard to assassination by drone, the President claimed "our actions are
effective". These strikes have
saved lives." He offered no
serious evidence to support either claim, neither of which appears to be
provable.
Amidst
much vague reassurance about how drone strikes would be fewer, and kill fewer
innocents, he also made an unsupported claim that strains credulity: "For me, and those in my chain of
command, these deaths will haunt us as long as we live, just as we are haunted
by the civilian casualties that have occurred through conventional fighting in
Afghanistan and Iraq."
To
dispel the haunting, the President immediately played the fear card again: "To
do nothing in the face of terrorist networks would invite far more civilian
casualties"."
Earlier
in the day, the Obama Administration admitted to killing four American
citizens, and unnumbered others, without any legal due process. Yet in his speech he said, "For the
record, I do not believe it would be constitutional for the government to
target and kill any U.S. citizen -- with a drone, or a shotgun -- without due
process."
The
President went on to discuss engaging with the Muslim American community, being
troubled intimidating reporters, modifying the legal basis for continued
war-making, and mitigating the horrors of Guantanamo. All these are issues he could have addressed at any time
during his presidency, and he offered no pressing reason for addressing any of
them now. Nor did he outline any
clear new direction on any of them.
Boiled
down, the President's speech signaled that he had noticed that there were
problems waging global war, that he would try to make it neater and prettier,
but that it would continue -- be afraid.
The
one apparent exception to the contradictory verbal soft talk was a fleeting
comment about three-quarters of the way through. Without offering any analysis, or even any means of doing
this, he said: "We must strengthen the opposition in
Syria, while isolating extremist elements -- because the end of a tyrant must
not give way to the tyranny of terrorism."
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