Biden’s Rules on Drone Warfare Mask Continued Violent Islamophobia
By Maha Hilal, Tom Dispatch
“I no longer love blue skies. In fact, I now prefer gray skies. The drones do not fly when the skies are gray.”
That’s what a young Pakistani boy named Zubair told members of Congress at a hearing on drones in October 2013. That hearing was during the Obama years at a time when the government had barely even acknowledged that an American drone warfare program existed.
Two years earlier, however, a Muslim cleric, Anwar Al-Awlaki and his 16-year-old son Abdulrahman, both American citizens, were killed by U.S. drone strikes in Yemen just weeks apart. Asked to comment on Abdulrahman’s killing, Obama campaign senior adviser Robert Gibbs said: “I would suggest that you should have a far more responsible father if they are truly concerned about the well-being of their children. I don’t think becoming an al-Qaeda jihadist terrorist is the best way to go about doing your business.”
Those are two of all too many grim tales of the brutality with which the United States has carried out its drone warfare program. Post-9/11 reiterations by the government of the danger we now live in (because the U.S. was attacked), have made the collective responsibility of Muslims and the callous dismissal of their deaths a regular occurrence.
Recent Posts
Israel’s War On The World
October 17, 2024
Take Action Now Over the years, the U.S. has partnered with Israel in its attacks on the UN, using its veto in the Security Council 40 times to…
The Curious Case of the Dog and the Abortion Pills
October 17, 2024
Take Action Now How the police and the Postal Service can combine forces to crack down on abortion by mailBy Debbie Nathan, Lux It was a tip that…
Is This Israel’s First Apartheid War?
October 17, 2024
Take Action Now Far from lacking a political strategy, Israel is fighting to reinforce the supremacist project it has built for decades between the…
How Can Democrats Win Back The White Working Class?
October 17, 2024
Take Action Now To become a party based among workers again, Democrats must remember that partisan commitment often grows from local roots.By…