WWII was a declared war. This "war on terror" is simply a media show which allows Presidents from both parties to prove their "toughness." It accomplishes nothing, and only makes us more dangerous. Whenever we kill an innocent, we create more enemies, instead of reducing that number. And this kid was killed by a drone strike ordered by the President with no authority from Congress and in a war that has never been declared, where no definition of victory has ever been offered, and no enemy clearly identified.
We kill all kinds of brown people overseas, on the notion that they "might" be terrorists. Yet our borders are wide open, allowing any one with intent to harm this country enter with impunity. And then our leaders are so cowardly, they want to be able to detain anyone without having to even meet a probable cause standard, and only because they "might" be a terrorist, or aided a terrorist, or met a terrorist, or saw a terrorist on TV, or spelled "terrorist" correctly in a spelling bee.
Instead of investigating real terrorists already in this country, we raid raw milk farms, guitar factories, and close unlawful lemonade stands. If we see someone who looks somewhat suspicious, however, let's toss them in jail, and deal with them if and when we get around to it.
This whole situation is bullshit, and has been used to turn this country into something the Founder's never intended. We have the most corrupt government in history, but if you question them, they shout "We must protect you from terrorists!" and that ends the conversation.
The terrorists are smart. Their one successful attack has been used to transform the US into a police state. They don't have to do another damn thing, we'll bring ourselves down, all in the name of "protecting ourselves". We're in more danger from our own government than we are from any terrorists.
Originally Posted by CuteOldGuy
This is obviously true.
The guy killed in Yemen wasn't even a bomb thrower or a trigger puller, just a loudmouth who made speeches in support of jihad. He'd never been suspected of killing anyone.
But today anyone tagged a "terrorist" can be given a death sentence by the President, and that's actually how it used to be until recently.
In the cold war the CIA assassinated hundreds of thousands of people, either directly or indirectly. Then in 1975 the laws were changed so a Presidential finding, a lethal finding, would have to be used. The CIA station chief in Pakistan used to keep a copy of Carter's finding in his desk as he went about arming Afghan fighters.
The difference is of course that now it's American citizens who are able to be killed, formally and legally, and that's just stupid.
More people die of bee stings every year than terrorist acts.
In the 1970s the US trained and supplied all the world's major terrorists in an operation in Libya run by Frank Terpil and Edwin Wilson. Anyone who's seen the film, "Munich" can see how that program operated. It was actually ordered by President Nixon after the 1972 Munich Olympics attack. That project worked in that no terrorist group ever targeted any Americans until the program was destroyed by American law enforcement in 1980. After that US citizens started being killed and captured in Lebanon, the Phillipines, and other places.
Terrorism is theater.
It is not politics, or even security.
It is theater.