I am passing this on from one of readers.
I don’t know what all your positions are on this matter. I have very strong opinions on this drone campaign and I was wondering if, in the liberal spirit of the great dissenters, you post a link to this petition on the White House web site. Would your editorial staff support this. Would you persuade your readers to sign?
Here is the link to the petition.
First, to say we have an editorial staff would imply that we pay people to edit DL. Jason still owes us all checks from 2006. I’d rather call the 9 or 10 of us freelance volunteers.
Second, I don’t know where all of my peers here at DL stand on this, but I for one do encourage everyone to sign it. And I say that not as a wide eyed purist who is criticizing the President because I didn’t get my single issue pony. The area where Obama has let us liberals down the most is in the area of civil liberties. While he ended outright torture by our own government, and while he has tried to shut down Guantanamo but was stopped by Congress, but this Kill List with no oversight or due process is a tad bit far for even my pragmatic and practical tastes.
As a liberal I am perfectly fine with the President ordering the deaths of foreign terrorists on foreign soil. And those deaths can be accomplished by sniper rifle, drone bombing or archery for all I care. These are foreign enemies who have attacked us and they deserve whatever fate befalls them.
But such actions, and such weaponry cannot be used against American citizens on foreign soil. Especially when the action is taken without any due process or oversight, with the only thing standing between you and death is the moral compass and feelings of one man, the President of the United States. Seriously, if you happen to get on this Kill List as an American citizen, the only thing that may save your life is the compassion of the President. Here’s hoping you get consideration on a good day.
Now, you can argue that an American citizen would only get on this Kill List if he was a terrorist who has turned against us and is fighting with the enemy. Perhaps. What if a mistake was made? There are thousands of stories of mistaken identities being made on the “Do Not Fly” list. What if a mistake is made on the Do Kill List. Your only recourse, while dodging a drone, is the good graces of one man.
More to the point, if an American citizen is on the list, arguably and allegedly he is a traitor. Why do we have the crime of treason if traitors are to be denied due process and killed instantly?
But the main reason I oppose the Kill List with no oversight with respect to American citizens is the precedent it sets. We have Republican Governors like Bob McConnell of Virginia already wanting to have drones operate stateside. It is not hard to imagine in a few years American citizens being gunned down in the streets by mindless drones on the orders of one man.
Now, President Obama is a good man of moral character. Supporters of his can say he will never do that.
Well, he shouldn’t have the option.
Because his successors may not be good men and women, especially if they are Republicans.
So, all of you, sign the petition.