Malu 'Aina

“The national religion of the United States of America is nationalism.  Its god is the flag.  Its prayer is the pledge of allegiance.  The flag’s powers include those of life and death…  Its myths are built around the sacrifice of lives to protect against the evils outside the nation.  Its heroes are soldiers who make such sacrifices based on unquestioning faith…  Its high priest is the Commander in Chief…

“What happens to myths like these when we discover that flying killer robots make better soldiers than soldiers do?  Or when we learn that the president is using those flying robots to kill U.S. citizens?
A majority (in the U.S.) supports the power of the president to kill non-U.S.ians with drones, while a significantly smaller percentage supports the president’s power to kill U.S. citizens with drones
abroad.  That is to say, if the high priest declares someone an enemy of god, many people believe he should have the power to kill that enemy . . .

“Some top U.S. military officials have said the drones are creating more new enemies than they kill…  The president has declared that any unidentified dead male of fighting age was, by definition, a militant.  After all, he was killed.  Yet, this we know for certain:  He was someone’s child. He was someone’s loved one.  He was someone’s friend.

“We have a responsibility right now to grow up very, very quickly.  Our government is breaking down the rule of law and stripping away our rights in the name of protecting us from an enemy it generates through the same process.  Drones are not inevitable. Drones are not in charge of us…  There is no excuse for supporting the murder of foreigners in cases in which we would not support the murder of U.S. citizens.  There is no excuse for supporting a policy of murdering anyone at all…”

See the full article Drones and Our National Religion By David Swanson

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