Posted on 07/18/2013 7:28:51 AM PDT by lbryce
I LEARNED that my 16-year-old grandson, Abdulrahman — a United States citizen — had been killed by an American drone strike from news reports the morning after he died.
The missile killed him, his teenage cousin and at least five other civilians on Oct. 14, 2011, while the boys were eating dinner at an open-air restaurant in southern Yemen.
I visited the site later, once I was able to bear the pain of seeing where he sat in his final moments. Local residents told me his body was blown to pieces. They showed me the grave where they buried his remains. I stood over it, asking why my grandchild was dead.
Nearly two years later, I still have no answers. The United States government has refused to explain why Abdulrahman was killed. It was not until May of this year that the Obama administration, in a supposed effort to be more transparent, publicly acknowledged what the world already knew — that it was responsible for his death.
The attorney general, Eric H. Holder Jr., said only that Abdulrahman was not “specifically targeted,” raising more questions than he answered.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I don't have an abiding, blanket hatred towards all, every Muslim despite what is surely an emphatic enmity towards me, an American first, Jewish, supporter of Israel, second.
I don't know enough about his past, where his sympathies lie regarding America. Is it the Great Satan, does he believe not God Bless America, but wholeheartedly God Damn America, did he do a jig on 9/11 out of sheer jubilation, can he really, truly admonish Obama with a clear conscience because he is not hellbent on killing Americans, that he doesn't want America to follow Shariah law, that he doesn't practice Taqiya, whereby lying to non-believers is encouraged to gain the advantage, that he doesn't believe kafirs (non-believers) are going to purgatory?
These are the questions I ask myself before I can honestly say no to the questions I have of him, these are the questions I ask myself of him, before I can offer sympathy, understanding, sorrow, regret.
Even when condemning a man I condemn, I can't, I won't, give him the benefit of the doubt because honestly I can't answer a single one of the questions I have of Mr. al-ALWAKI, that I would believe he doesn't wish with all his heart for the eternal damnation of the USA.
Ubama will be using armed drones on us soon.
Something is clearly screwed up when the NYT starts printing this stuff.
The story is supposed to be George Zimmerman is a racist for defending himself. Not OOPs, we killed another of my supporters.
I also cannot comment on the specifics of this particular case. I will only speak generally.
In WWII, we fire-bombed Tokyo. The British did a real number on Dresden. Then, there was Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We didn't "specifically target" people -- we attacked our enemies with the intent of causing enormous harm. And we won that war.
We are now a society in which our war-making efforts must (apparently) be vetted through the Attorney General. Did we fill out the paper-work? Did we dot all the i's? Were we legally justified? Did any innocents suffer?
This is, I think, part of why we have trouble winning wars nowadays.
Were this kid's civil rights violated?
Drones don’t kill people, Commies and Socialists do.
What was a 16 year old doing in a Yemeni cafe frequented by terrorists?
There may be a difference there - I'm not sure
Does anyone know what business this dead American had in Yemen? I just don’t see hanging out with terrorists at a cafe in Yemen as a very safe vacation plan.
Much of southern Yemen has been terrorist-infested for a long time. Like the earlier responders, I have no idea if this guy deserved it or not.
Frankly, I’d be happier if we hadn’t made all those Muslims from terrorist parts of the world into US citizens in the first place.
Normally the approach is trust but verify. With anyone named al-Awlaki the approach would be to mis-trust but leave room for doubt.
We are under attack with our own goodness and law. These people have mastered deceit and manipulation. It comes naturally to them.
A 16 year old “U.S. Citizen” in Yemen? Why? Bad choices have bad consequences. There are places in this country, this city, I have vowed not to go into and have told family and employees to stay away from. The world carries the same caution areas.
And if you’re not ok with firebombing an entire city...if you don’t feel squared away with God about that...you have no business conducting a so-called “war.”
It’s deadly. You do it for deadly reasons and give it all you’ve got. That way it ends faster and you have fewer dead countrymen.
I thought we had that figured out with Viet Nam.
Let me say: If our Libyan ambassador is being attacked, I say scramble the jets, cross that border, rescue the Americans. We can worry about paperwork some other day.
But if you're going to be engaged in any sort of sustsained effort, then convene Congress, get the authority, and eliminate the notion that one politial party is behaving badly or that the action is "not justified".
Would that we might have gotten Grand Ma too.
+1
Like you, I don't know the specifics of this particular case. But this is a bit suspicious. What is an American citizen doing in Yemen? Maybe just visiting relatives. But maybe not.
However, in general, nations need to be careful. You want to damage your enemies without creating new enemies.
An example of this is the British attack on the "neutral" Vichy French fleet in North Africa in July of 1940.
The attack damaged quite a few ships, but it also pushed many of the Vichy French closer to the Germans.
Here's a link. Sorry I don't know how to hot link.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_on_Mers-el-K%C3%A9bir
Hanging out in Yemen never likely to turn out real well, especially with the wrong sect (not same as POTUS).
Lie down with dogs, get up with fleas, in this account “like fleas”.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.