After the targeted assassination of Anwar Al-Aulaqi in Yemen, a US-born citizen, many had written about the extremely dangerous precedent it has set. Without any due process of law, American citizens can be targeted and killed at the whim of whomever is the Commander in Chief.
Now, weeks after the death of this man, drones were used again. This time, attacks killed Anwar's 16-year old son, a 17-year old cousin and reportedly 7 other people. In the initial reports which were based entirely on government sources, it was first claimed that his son, Abdulrahman was 21 years of age. We discover now, a birth certificate published by the Washington Post proving that he was actually only 16 years old and born in Denver, Colorado.
Either the Obama administration is yet again caught in an obvious lie or our intelligence is so flawed that we should not be even attempting to target anyone for anything. The problem here really is that we should have been outraged a very long time ago. When the Bush administration initially pushed Congress into first passing the draconian Patriot Act without ever being able to read it, we all should have been outraged when it was first discovered that it attempts to completely strip Americans and all others of their 4th and 5th amendment protections. The resulting and continuous slippery slope that we have all witnessed since should scare and outrage all Americans no matter what political ideology you identify with.
We have become a nation ruled by the same type of limitless power that our young men and women died to protect us from on foreign shores, a generation ago. So, the question remains, what are we going to do about it? For starters, we need to get back to our own US Constitution and not settle for any candidate, for any office in our land that does not understand how important it is to uphold its principles and instructions. Any member of Congress that does not realize by now that the Patriot Act was an action intended to be used against all of us, including and especially American Patriots does not deserve re-election and certainly should not be voted for to become the next President of the United States. Unfortunately, that eliminates many of the candidates now running for the office. So be it, for it is critical to choose wisely this time and not settle for anything less.
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