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Legionnaire Eugene Bullard |
Of course the Navy is not to be outdone in the drone war race. It is currently testing a drone for aircraft carrier landings that can cary 4,000 pounds of munitions (XB-47B). It is also testing a drone helicopter. If these tests are successful, then the United States could carry out remote controlled air strikes anywhere in the world without seeking permission to use airbases on foreign soil or risking pilots' lives. Not quite Zeus hurling lightning bolts, but a reasonable facsimile. The ethical questions of remote controlled killing of enemies that may include US citizens* have been thrust aside in the search for efficient weapons that are relatively riskless for their operators. A Harvard law professor said Obama's brutal embrace of a legal theory that allows the assassination of citizens anywhere in the world "a repudiation of the Magna Carta". Divine right of the emperor, anyone?
*Obama ordered the killing of US citizen and Al Qaeda propagandist Anwar Awlaki in 2009 using a ship launched Tomahawk cruise missile armed with cluster bombs, The cruise missle missed Awlaki but 52 Yemenis were killed, more than half of which were women and children. The United States is not a signatory to the international convention against cluster munitions. Awlaki was killed by a drone strike in September 2011. Two weeks later Obama killed his 16 year old son in another drone strike. Abdel-Rahman Awlaki was born in Denver. His father was born in New Mexico. Regardless if Anwar Awlaki was a bad actor who deserved death, the slippery slope has been institutionalized in the course of two administrations making a mockery of the Bill of Rights.