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November 2011 Anti-Drone Protest in Yemen

You won't find these pictures from the media. These pictures cover an anti-drone protest that took place in Yemen on November 4, 2011. The October 14, 2011, U.S. assassination of Abdulrahman Al-awlaki, a 16 year old Yemeni-American citizen, was a particularly intense event that sparked these protests. (See "The Assassination of an American Teenager" by David Kretzmann for more information on the assassination of Abdulrahman Al-alwaki.)

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These photos are courtesy of the Abdulrahman Anwar Alawlaki – A crime we’ll never forget Facebook page.

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People within an empire are blind to the empire itself. U.S. citizens have been trained to trust and protect their leaders, even when these leaders are escalating the slaughter of innocent human beings abroad. Is the U.S. different from previous tyrannical empires? Some claim the U.S. is defending freedom and democracy by preemptively invading tens of countries around the world. How many wars must be fought before we acknowledge the miserable strategical failure of killing other human beings in far off lands in supposed efforts to promote peace?

I am not a stubborn pacifist. But I am not a blind follower either, which is what the majority of people in the U.S. appear to be today. People blindly followed and supported George W. Bush. After eight years of horrendous atrocities abroad, torturing human beings, and Bush ignoring his own promises to stop nation building, people decided they wanted a change. Barack Obama promised change, and he even campaigned that he was “Change we can believe in.” Give people a catchy slogan and a decent speech and they’ll believe and defend just about anything.

Three years into Obama’s presidency, you can count on one hand the number of the policies Obama has ended from the Bush era. Obama has started new wars, continued torturing untried human beings, and today his administration defends the very policies he strongly criticized just four years ago. Some say Obama just needs more time. “You can’t change everything in a day, Obama’s doing the best he can!”

How long must Obama continue and expand Bush’s abominable policies before I can legitimately criticize his policies? Three years? Five years? Eight years?

No one in government has done a thing to earn my trust. “Conservatives” who preach against government intervention in our domestic economy praise the very same government when it sanctions, invades, and militarily occupies foreign countries. “Liberals” who criticize a Republican president for war crimes and the destruction of the Constitution turn a blind eye when a Democrat does the exact same things, instead giving him a pat on the back while writing a check for his reelection.

Think outside the box. Think like a human being. Would you retaliate against a foreign government that attempted to rig your country’s elections, prevented economic trade, and opened permanent military bases on your own soil? Answer that question honestly, and you will understand why “insurgents” and “terrorists” in numerous countries around the world are retaliating against the U.S. They do not do it for religious purposes, they don’t do it because we’re “free” (which is a laughable accusation in and of itself), they do it because they’ve had enough of their friends, family, and countrymen killed by an intruding foreign army.

It is sickening how quickly people jump to Obama’s defense after he assassinated three American citizens in Yemen in the past month, even a 16 year old born in Denver, Colorado. I do not care in the slightest that Obama called some of these people “terrorists.” Where in the Constitution does the president get the power to declare people “terrorists” and assassinate them?

The U.S. has not declared war on any enemy or country as mandated in the U.S. Constitution. The rule of law isn’t subject to the whim of a president or a congress. You may despise the people the U.S. government kills, but please think like an adult. Killing more people in the Middle East will in no way increase your personal safety or liberty. Heaven knows that 16 year old American kid from Colorado was a huge threat to your life, liberty, and property.

Neither Obama nor anyone in his administration has even acknowledged that U.S. drone attacks killed an innocent 16 year old American citizen. That is despicable. Those who blindly follow Obama are just as foolish and dangerous as those who blindly followed Bush.

Is this what we’ve become? Are we completely blind to the suffering the U.S. has caused? Do you really believe the people in these countries will gladly roll over to a gargantuan foreign military and a barrage of drone attacks?

I am not going to support any politician who thinks for a second that the U.S. can do whatever it wants around the world without inciting retaliation against those actions. It is the height of arrogance to think the U.S. can only do good, only be welcomed in these countries, and never do anything evil that might warrant a justified retaliation. Put yourself in the shoes of someone in the Middle East, or you will never understand.

Enough is enough. No matter what the government and the media would like me to believe, I don’t hate the people in the Middle East. They are no less human than you and I. The same institutions telling you the people in the Middle East are human garbage are the very same institutions that told our ancestors Native Americans were worthless, primitive, unintelligent human beings. I am sick of this; I am sick of war.

Let us not forget those who have been unjustly killed. Let us not forget, lest we neglect the preciousness of human life. Let us not forget, lest we become ignorant of liberty. No, we will remember. We will always remember.

“Peace and friendship with all mankind is our wisest policy; and I wish we may be permitted to pursue it.” ~ Thomas Jefferson

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