Common Dreams staff | June 29 2012
US Congressman offers scathing look at US drone program, covert wars
In the June 21 interview with the London-based Bureau, Kucinich gives a scathing review of the U.S. wars in Yemen and Pakistan and states that the nation’s justice values have been “radically altered” and that we now have a system of trial by execution.
“We have ventured into a world since 9/11 where international law is set aside and where the implements of war are becoming so ubiquitous that all the rules are being ignored and conflict zones are expanding. Where suspected terrorists – and we do not know what they are really suspected of doing, you know – they can be suspects now, and they can be executed. Or they can just be perceived to be a male of combat age and be executed.”
Kucinich remarks how the power of Congress to declare war has now morphed into “the derogation to the executive of the power to strike at any nation at any time for any reason.”
On the covert, escalating war in Yemen, including drone strikes, Kucinich bluntly states, “We understand that we are at war in Yemen.”
The congressman emphasized that the U.S. drone program represents a bastardization of justice: “What we have done here with the drone program is to radically alter our system of justice. Because, remember, if the whole idea is that we are exporting American values, those drones represent American values. And now we are telling the world that American values are summary executions, no rights to an accused, no arrest process, no reading of charges, no trial by jury, no judge, only an executioner.”
And by having such an assassination program without legal justification, we “journeyed into moral depravity,” Kucinich stated.
In response to the question in the title I can report that most of my readers are. Almost everyone got the point of the last column. They see the absurdity of the government’s claim that the identity of the tough, macho Navy Seals, who allegedly murdered Osama bin Laden, has to be kept secret in order to protect our fierce warriors from reprisals from Muslim terrorists, while those government officials responsible for the torture and deaths of large numbers of Muslims can walk around, identity known, unprotected and safe.