Uncle Sam wants YOU...to die in a Yemen wedding party drone strike by Walt Zlotow
International law? US doesn't need no stinkin' international law
How many Americans saw the headline: "US drone strike kills 11 in Yemen wedding party", had their eyes glaze over and quickly turn to the funny pages? Mine didn't and I couldn't. Reading in horror of what is becoming an all to familiar event, an American drone unleashed its bomb on a wedding party convoy, not an al Qaeda convoy as US military suspected. To put names on the pile of flesh and blood we created they are:
Hussein Mohammed Saleh Al Ameri, 65
Mohammed Ali Massad Al Ameri, 30
Ali Abdullah Mohammed Al Tays, 35
Zeidan Mohammed Al Ameri, 40
Saif Abdullah Mabkhout Al Ameri, 20
Hussein Mohammed Al Tays, 20
Motlaq Hamoud Mohammed Al Taysi, 45
Saleh Abdullah Mabkhout, 30
Aaref Mohammed Al Taysi, 30
Saleh Massad Al Ameri, 42
Massad Dayfallah Al Ameri, 25
These victims, just like us, had mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, wives, husbands, sons, daughters; now all denied their loved ones due to a murderous mistake that will never be punished. Last May, President Obama told the National Defense University, “Before any strike is taken, there must be near-certainty that no civilians will be killed or injured — the highest standard we can set.” On September 2, 2012, twelve Yemenis civilian children were killed when a drone “missed” its target car carrying a suspected al Qaeda member. On May 15, 2012, fourteen civilians, including a pregnant woman, were killed in a drone strike in a Yemen residential district. On March 9, 2012, a US drone strike in the al-Baydah province killed 34 individuals. There are dozens, maybe hundreds more incidents of this senseless slaughter of innocents. Besides being the most heinous of crimes, these acts breed endless hatred of America and recruit many more extremists wishing to do us harm than they possibly kill.
The next time you attend a wedding party, or any event consisting of more than a dozens folks, be thankful you are not in Yemen or Pakistan or Afghanistan or Somalia where American drones roam unmolested and reign death down on any large gathering they believe might include bad guys deserving summary execution. And when you hear that the chant: "U.S.A. Number 1", it may very well refer to the killing of innocents.
Hussein Mohammed Saleh Al Ameri, 65
Mohammed Ali Massad Al Ameri, 30
Ali Abdullah Mohammed Al Tays, 35
Zeidan Mohammed Al Ameri, 40
Saif Abdullah Mabkhout Al Ameri, 20
Hussein Mohammed Al Tays, 20
Motlaq Hamoud Mohammed Al Taysi, 45
Saleh Abdullah Mabkhout, 30
Aaref Mohammed Al Taysi, 30
Saleh Massad Al Ameri, 42
Massad Dayfallah Al Ameri, 25
These victims, just like us, had mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, wives, husbands, sons, daughters; now all denied their loved ones due to a murderous mistake that will never be punished. Last May, President Obama told the National Defense University, “Before any strike is taken, there must be near-certainty that no civilians will be killed or injured — the highest standard we can set.” On September 2, 2012, twelve Yemenis civilian children were killed when a drone “missed” its target car carrying a suspected al Qaeda member. On May 15, 2012, fourteen civilians, including a pregnant woman, were killed in a drone strike in a Yemen residential district. On March 9, 2012, a US drone strike in the al-Baydah province killed 34 individuals. There are dozens, maybe hundreds more incidents of this senseless slaughter of innocents. Besides being the most heinous of crimes, these acts breed endless hatred of America and recruit many more extremists wishing to do us harm than they possibly kill.
The next time you attend a wedding party, or any event consisting of more than a dozens folks, be thankful you are not in Yemen or Pakistan or Afghanistan or Somalia where American drones roam unmolested and reign death down on any large gathering they believe might include bad guys deserving summary execution. And when you hear that the chant: "U.S.A. Number 1", it may very well refer to the killing of innocents.
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