It seems that the international community President Obama so cherishes isn’t cherishing back. In last September’s speech to the United Nations, Obama blamed his predecessor’s war policies for diminishing America’s image in the eyes of the world. “America has acted unilaterally,” said Obama, “without regard for the interests of others. And this has fed an almost reflexive anti-Americanism...” He promised the U.N. “a new era of engagement with the world.”
Today, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions is demanding that the Obama administration demonstrate to the world that it is not randomly killing people in violation of international law. Phillip Alston, investigator for the United Nations Human Rights Council, is concerned with CIA directed Predator drone attacks in Pakistan. He decries the CIA’s attitude of “Let’s use drones in a broader context.” And warns that “once you use targeting less stringently, it can become indiscriminate.” It’s estimated that since coming into office, Obama has ordered at least 41 Predator strikes.
Alston told the BBC, “My concern is that these drones, these Predators, are being operated in a framework which may well violate international humanitarian law and international human rights law. The onus is really on the government of the United States to reveal more about the ways in which it makes sure that arbitrary executions, extrajudicial executions, are not in fact being carried out through the use of these weapons.” In the eyes of the Obama administration, the “war on terror” is a law enforcement matter best left to prosecutors, judges and juries. Now the U.N. is upping the anti by demanding Obama live up this fantasy by placing his Constitutional war powers under the legal jurisdiction of the U.N.
It seems that Obama’s idiotic, unworkable policy of international “engagement” might land him in the docket as a war criminal. Move over George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.
-- Mr. Curmudgeon
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