Droning On and On

After watching the Presidential debates, I don't see much of a difference between politics and professional wrestling. The typical wrestler will yell out the name of the town he's in for a cheap pop to win the crowd over. That's what happened in the debates. Obama and Romney would make a few points and then yell "...because it's for America"! 

Replace the wrestler with a politician, the referee with a moderator, the championship belt with the title of Presidency, and you have yourself a good ol' fashioned American debate. At least you know they're playing characters in wrestling though.

You know who the bad guy is when billionaire WWE owner Vince McMahon tells Trish Stratus, a female wrestler, to strip down in the middle of the ring while he yells "GET ON YOUR HANDS AND KNEES AND BARK LIKE A DOG"! It's hard to tell if a politician is the bad guy because they all make themselves come off as the Rock.

I know it's sacrilegious at SUNY Old Westbury to question the Obama administration but they're a collective group of people who haven't exactly lived up to the People's Champion status we were promised. In human history, the words "truth" and "government" aren't exactly words that fit well together and it's sad that our President isn't the exception.

Weeks after our President was reelected, a Justice Department memo leaked to NBC showed this administration's plan to kill American citizens abroad without due process by use of unmanned aircrafts called drones. These drones have been used to hunt down "terrorists" put on kill lists by our government. One of the biggest advocates for the drone program is the new CIA director endorsed by President Obama, John Brennan. Brennan was an early supporter of the drone program during the Bush administration. He calls them a "last resort."

                Here are some statistics on these "last resort" weapons from the Bureau of Investigative Journalism. There were 52 reported drone strikes under the Bush Administration. President Obama has him beat with 312. Since 2004, drones have killed more than 3000 people. The number of civilians killed in these drone strikes is between 473 and 893. The country obsessed with "protecting the children" has killed 176 overseas by means of Drone. When they say "protect the children" they must mean just ours. Children on the other side of the world have no business being protected by them.

                A 2011 article from Bloomberg News reported that the CIA said civilians killed in drone strikes has fallen drastically. Can we even trust their word though? In Michael Isikoff's February 4th article for nbcnews.comwhich leaked that Justice Department memo, he writes, "It was provided (the Justice Deprtment memo) to members of the Senate Intelligence and Judiciary committees in June by administration officials on the condition that it be kept confidential and not discussed publicly."

Former White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said on MSNBC's show "Up," "When I went through the process of becoming Press Secretary one of the first things they told me was "You're not even to acknowledge the drone program." This drone program is something they've been trying to keep secret for some time now. President Obama promised more transparency yet his administration has done the opposite.

Drones may not affect us now but they will in the future. The 112th congress passed the "FAA Modernization and Reform act of 2012." This bill will allow more than 30,000 drones in American skies by 2020. They have already been slowly introduced. A New York Times article in July reported 18 police departments, universities, and government agencies have been cleared to use drones.

This dilemma of how we should deal with the "bad guys" is the question Anthony Burgess and Stanley Kubrick asked in A Clockwork Orange.Alex was a 15 year criminal who was a fan of rape and murder. His young brain wasn't hardwired to play Pokemon. Vicious crimes were how he had his fun.

                After Alex was arrested, the state tested a radical new treatment on him which warped his cognitive functions. He'd become sick whenever he felt the urge to do something sexual or violent. There was no court order to decide whether Alex should receive this treatment. They did it anyway. When Burgess first wrote Clockwork Orange,  he posed the same argument we're having today. Alex was a criminal but when is it okay to take to do something drastic that goes against the judiciary system?

                Anwar al-Aulaqi was one of the men on the drone "kill list." Al-Aulaqi was a radical Muslim tied to the underwear bomber in Detroit and the Fort Hood Shooter because he wrote blogs in favor of what they did. The United States considered Al-Aulaqi a high ranking terrorist. GQ magazine went as far as calling Al-Aulaqi the next Osama Bin Laden.

If Bin Laden was Tupac and Biggie, then the "terrorist" with a Pokemon sounding name was the Drake of the terror game. Al-Aulaqi looked like a terrorist, talked like one, hung out with them, but real terrorists laughed at him. Bin Laden dismissed Al-Aulaqi because he had no battlefield experience. To Bin Laden, Al-Aulaqi was just a blogger who was all talk.

When it came out that Al-Aulaqi was on the kill list, his father filed suit against the United States. He wanted a trial for his son but eventually the suit was dismissed by the judge. Al-Aulaqi was later killed by a drone strike on September 30, 2011, for being a suspected terrorist. Just like Alex in Clockwork Orange, Al-Aulaqi was by no means a treat. He was a citizen though who was killed for being labeled a terrorist even though he didn't commit any violent crimes himself.

                Let's say there was clear evidence that Al-Aulaqi planned terrorist attacks. Was it okay to kill him? Even Charles Manson wasn't put to death and just like Al-Aulaqi, he didn't kill anybody. He just planned the attacks.

                I don't think the future will be completely dystopian like Burgess' world in Clockwork Orange. It has potential to be that though if we don't speak up. Is there any way to clearly define what a terrorist is? All the government does is label a person  a terrorist and then throw some missiles at him. When the internet controlling bill SOPA came out, there was a public outcry and it fell through. The second that goofy drone stuff starts happening in the United States, I hope there's just as much of a public outcry like there was for SOPA.