{"id":15528,"date":"2012-06-05T17:58:54","date_gmt":"2012-06-06T00:58:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=15528"},"modified":"2012-06-05T17:58:54","modified_gmt":"2012-06-06T00:58:54","slug":"for-obama-if-youre-male-and-near-a-terrorist-that-makes-you-guilty-so-die","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=15528","title":{"rendered":"For Obama, if you’re male and near a terrorist, that makes you guilty. So die."},"content":{"rendered":"

From a New York Times<\/em> article<\/a> about the US’s killer drone program:<\/p>\n

Mr. Obama embraced a disputed method for counting civilian casualties that did little to box him in. It in effect counts all military-age males in a strike zone as combatants, according to several administration officials, unless there is explicit intelligence posthumously proving them innocent.<\/p>\n

Counterterrorism officials insist this approach is one of simple logic: people in an area of known terrorist activity, or found with a top Qaeda operative, are probably up to no good. \u201cAl Qaeda is an insular, paranoid organization \u2014 innocent neighbors don\u2019t hitchhike rides in the back of trucks headed for the border with guns and bombs,\u201d said one official, who requested anonymity to speak about what is still a classified program.<\/p>\n

This counting method may partly explain the official claims of extraordinarily low collateral deaths. In a speech last year Mr. Brennan, Mr. Obama\u2019s trusted adviser, said that not a single noncombatant had been killed in a year of strikes. And in a recent interview, a senior administration official said that the number of civilians killed in drone strikes in Pakistan under Mr. Obama was in the \u201csingle digits\u201d \u2014 and that independent counts of scores or hundreds of civilian deaths unwittingly draw on false propaganda claims by militants.<\/p>\n

But in interviews, three former senior intelligence officials expressed disbelief that the number could be so low. The C.I.A. accounting has so troubled some administration officials outside the agency that they have brought their concerns to the White House. One called it \u201cguilt by association\u201d that has led to \u201cdeceptive\u201d estimates of civilian casualties.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt bothers me when they say there were seven guys, so they must all be militants,\u201d the official said. \u201cThey count the corpses and they\u2019re not really sure who they are.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And although the first anonymous official quoted gives the impression that we’re only killing truckloads of armed men headed towards imminent hostilities, we’re also targeting rescuers <\/a>and mourners<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It’s disgusting behavior. It’s murderous, callous, sexist, and simply wrong. And it’s dubious <\/a>whether it actually <\/a>reduces terrorism at all; it’s possible acts like this make Americans less safe.<\/p>\n

I’m still planning to vote for Obama, but I may have to put a bag over my head and shower afterwards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From a New York Times article about the US’s killer drone program: Mr. Obama embraced a disputed method for counting civilian casualties that did little to box him in. It in effect counts all military-age males in a strike zone … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40,107],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-international-issues","category-sexism-hurts-men"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15528"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15528\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15529,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15528\/revisions\/15529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}