fuckyeahmarxismleninism:

By Glenn Greenwald

This morning, the New York Times has a very lengthy and detailed article about President Obama’s counter-Terrorism policies based on interviews with “three dozen of his current and former advisers.” I’m writing separately about the numerous revelations contained in that article, but want specifically to highlight this one vital passage about how the Obama administration determines who is a “militant.” The article explains that Obama’s rhetorical emphasis on avoiding civilian deaths “did not significantly change” the drone program, because Obama himself simply expanded the definition of a “militant” to ensure that it includes virtually everyone killed by his drone strikes. Just read this remarkable passage:

Mr. Obama embraced a disputed method for counting civilian casualties that did little to box him in. It in effect counts all military-age males in a strike zone as combatants, according to several administration officials, unless there is explicit intelligence posthumously proving them innocent.

i haven’t reminded you that Obama is a bad president and also a literal war criminal in a while, so here you go.

“but 3,” you reply, “he was our last, best hope! we voted him in fair and square! even you voted for him!* are you saying we should vote for ROMNEY instead?!”

nope. just need to point out that voting for any of these hateful nightmare men is a vote for war and destruction and crimes against humanity, no matter what their platform or promises. in the present state of the country there is no way out of this problem. get your signs and your helmets and get into the streets and maybe, maybe it’ll help a little.

*i didn’t, technically, but it doesn’t matter because i certainly WOULD have voted for obama if i had been in the country at the time