Malala Yousafzai and Brian Terrell

Dear Mr. President,

Unlike Malala Yousafzai, Brian Terrell’s crusade will not appear on the front page of The New York Times because his struggle against injustice does not adhere to the myth of America. Terrell was one of 40 protesters last April at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, a base from which drones are controlled in Afghanistan and Pakistan. He has protested and been arrested before—at drone bases in New York and Nevada—because he believes the drone wars are illegal and immoral, that they violate international law and commit crimes against humanity. He quotes Gandhi who characterized violence as “the destruction of time and distance,” a perfect description of drones. More than 3,000 people have been killed by drone strikes in Pakistan alone, 1/3 or more innocent men, women and children. While the judge in Terrell’s case was not offended at the crimes committed by the Air Force a few miles away, he did take offense at Terrell calling the Military Police who arrested him, “goose-stepping riot police.” The judge sentenced him to 6 months in federal prison, the maximum for a misdemeanor. Curious about his remark, I found video of the protest (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Aoa4YtkZEM&feature=related) and sure enough, there they were, perhaps 60 MPs in full riot gear: helmets, shields, padded everything, batons, in formation, 20 across, 3 deep, blocking the roadway and sidewalks, pounding their shields with their batons in time with each exaggerated step, not exactly a Nazi goose step but a close approximation, intimidating and menacing in contrast to the nonviolent hymn-singing protesters. The crackdown on dissent in America is underway, everything in place: the militarization of our police forces, an expanded Patriot Act that permits unconstrained spying on everyone everywhere, legislation that allows you to declare anyone a terrorist subject to indefinite detention, a law that makes protesting on federal property a crime, aggressive prosecution of whistleblowers, your own private armies and air force—the CIA, Special Forces, 7,000 drones… You have expanded wars of aggression, gutted the Constitution, ignored the rule of law, committed war crimes and crimes against humanity. You have done more harm to America than the Taliban, Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden combined, more harm to democracy than any other president in history. You are dangerous, Mr. President; you hide behind a mask and we mistake you for friend when you are really the enemy within.