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The Rogue Nation

Posted By Philip Giraldi On March 10, 2010 @ 11:00 pm In Uncategorized | 18 Comments

In spite of the fact that the United States faces no enemy anywhere in the world capable of
opposing it on a battlefield, the Defense budget for 2011 will go up 7.1 percent from current
levels. A lot of the new spending will be on drones, America’s latest contribution to western
civilization, capable of surveilling large areas on the ground and delivering death from the skies.
It is a peculiarly American vision of warfare, with a "pilot" sitting at a desk half a world away and
pressing a button that can kill a target far below. Hygienic and mechanical, it is a bit like a video
game with no messy cleanup afterwards. The recently released United States Quadrennial
Defense Review reports how the Pentagon will be developing a new generation of super drones
that can stay airborne for long periods of time and can strike anywhere in the world and at any
time to kill America’s enemies. The super drones will include some that can fly at supersonic
speeds and others that will be large enough to carry nuclear weapons. Some of the new drones
will be designed for the navy, able to take off from aircraft carriers and project US power to even
more distant hot spots. Drones are particularly esteemed by policymakers because as they are
unmanned and can fly low to the ground they can violate someone’s airspace "accidentally"
without necessarily resulting in a diplomatic incident.

Washington’s embrace of drones as the weapon of choice for international assassination is one
major reason why the United States has become the evil empire. Drones are the extended fist of
what used to be referred to as the Bush Doctrine. Under the Bush Doctrine Washington asserted
that it had a right to use its military force preemptively against anyone in the world at any time if
the White House were to determine that such action might be construed as defending the United
States. Vice President Dick Cheney defined the policy in percentage terms, asserting that if there
was a 1% chance that any development anywhere in the world could endanger Americans, the
United States government was obligated to act. It should be noted that President Barack Obama
has not repudiated either the Bush doctrine or the 1% solution of Dick Cheney and has actually
gone so far as to assert that America is fighting Christianity-approved "just wars," a position
disputed by Pope Benedict XVI among others. Far from eschewing war and killing, the number
and intensity of drone attacks has increased under Obama, as has the number of civilian
casualties, referred to by the splendid bloodless euphemism "collateral damage."

Drones are currently killing people in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia. It should be
noted that the United States is not at war with any of those countries, which should mean in a
sane world that the killing is illegal under both international law and the US Constitution.
America’s Founding Fathers used constitutional restraints to make it difficult for Americans to go
to war, requiring an act of war by Congress. Unfortunately it has not worked out that way. The
US has been involved in almost constant warfare since the Second World War but the most recent
actual declaration of war was on December 8, 1941. And then there are the special and
clandestine operations that span the globe. Apart from Israel, no other country in the world has
an openly declared policy of going around and killing people. One would think that the
international community would consequently regard both Tel Aviv and Washington as pariahs, but
fear of offending the world’s only super power and its principal client state has aborted most
criticism. Most nations are resigned to letting assassination teams and hellfire armed drones
operate as they please. If Iran were operating the drones and bumping off its enemies in places
like Dubai you can be sure the reaction would be quite different.

And it doesn’t stop there. Obama’s Attorney General Eric Holder has effectively blocked any
inquiry into the use of torture by US government officials, mostly from the CIA. The
Administration claims to have stopped the practice but has declared that no one will be punished
for obeying orders to waterboard prisoners, an argument that was not acceptable at the
Nuremberg trials in 1946 and should not be acceptable now. The United States is a signatory to
the international agreement on torture and there are also both federal and state laws that
prohibit either carrying out or enabling the practice, so the ruling by Holder is essentially a
decision to ignore serious crimes that were committed against individuals who, in many cases,
were both helpless and completely innocent. It also ignores the participation of Justice
Department lawyers and CIA doctors in the process, involvement that most would consider both
immoral and unethical. Worst of all, it lets off the hook the real war criminals, people like George
Tenet and those in the White House who approved the practice. Tenet, one recalls, received the
Presidential Medal of Freedom and a $4 million book deal. He still teaches at Georgetown
University. Justice Department lawyers John Yoo and Jay Bybee, who made the legal arguments
for torture are now respectively a tenured professor at Berkeley and a federal appeals court
justice. One assumes that the actual CIA torturers continue to be employed by the federal
 government or are enjoying a comfortable retirement. So much for accountability for war crimes
under President Obama.

Finally there is assassination. On February 3rd Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair
commented during a congressional briefing that the United States reserves the right to kill
American citizens overseas who are actively "involved" with groups regarded as terrorist.
Involvement is, of course, a very slippery expression providing maximum latitude for those
seeking to make a case for summary execution. The death list involves a due process of sorts in
that a government official makes the decision who shall be on it based on guidelines but it does
not allow the accused to challenge or dispute evidence. It should also be noted that no one in
Congress objected to the Blair statement and the media hardly reported the story, suggesting
that tolerance of illegal and immoral activity now pervades the system. As former Reagan
Deputy Attorney General Bruce Fein has commented, the claimed authority to suspend one’s
constitutional rights overseas can be extended to anyone in the United States by declaring one an
enemy combatant under the terms of the Military Commissions Act. Jose Padilla was denied his
constitutional rights to a fair trial even though he was an American citizen and was arrested in
Chicago, not overseas. Can we anticipate extrajudicial killing of American citizens in America as
part of the war on terror? Of course we can.

Three strikes and you’re out, Mr. Obama. Your government stands for preemptive killing and
missile strikes on people living in countries with which America is not at war, lets torturers and
torture enablers go free, and has asserted the right to assassinate its own citizens anywhere in
the world based on secret evidence. Ronald Reagan once described his vision of America as a
shining city on a hill. Over the past ten years the shining city has become the ultimate rogue
nation, pumped up with power and hubris in spite of the clearly visible signs of decline and moving
inexorably towards a catastrophic fall.

Read more by Philip Giraldi

Many Voices Calling for War with Iran – March 3rd, 2010
What’s In a Name? – February 24th, 2010
Some Straight Thinking About Iran – February 17th, 2010
Civis Romanus Sum – February 12th, 2010
Onward Christian Soldiers, Again – February 3rd, 2010

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