Moral Conundrums

Dear Mr. President,

Tomorrow you get to play god again in your regular weekly Tuesday counter-terrorism meeting, picking and choosing who shall live and who shall die from the list of ‘nominees’ chosen by faceless bureaucrats in a secret process with secret criteria and secret evidence. No moral judgment required. All guilty by their presence on the list. No moral conundrums even when young teenagers, children, are included—if they’re in proximity to a “known” terrorist, they are automatically classified ‘militants’ and therefore a threat to the United States. Excuse me, Mr. President? A 16-year-old boy taking pictures of the aftermath of a drone strike in the mountains of Pakistan is an immediate threat to the United States? A 16-year-old boy looking for his father in Yemen or another 16-year-old boy driving his aunt to a medical clinic in Pakistan are threats to the United States? This is seriously warped logic, Mr. President. It is not a moral conundrum to order the assassination of 17-year old girls and 16-year old boys; it is cold-blooded murder and a war crime. It is not a moral conundrum to order the assassination of a “high value target” knowing his wife and family members will also be killed in the attack; it is cold-blooded murder and a war crime. It is not a moral conundrum to order a drone strike on funeral processions or secondary strikes on people rushing to the aid of victims of a first strike; it is cold-blooded murder and a war crime. It is not a moral conundrum to order the assassination without charge or trial of an American citizen in Yemen; it is a gross violation of the Constitution and a war crime. Sending teams of assassins to murder an unarmed man in the middle of the night along with his wife and son is not the act of a heroic president; it is the act of cold-blooded killer unbothered by questions of morality or justice, of guilt or innocence. It seems there are no real moral conundrums in your world, Mr. President, just expedient decisions to be made behind a wall of secrecy and unaccountability. This does not bode well for democracy, it does not bode well for the world. You are not a protector of democracy and freedom and the rule of law. You twist law and logic to suit your needs but you cannot change the definition of “good” or “evil” for they are absolutes and what you are doing with your secret kill lists and targeted assassinations is evil. Somewhere along the way you changed from your mother’s son to a cold-blooded assassin.