Out of the Woods

US and Terrorism

However unsettling the bombings at the Boston Marathon, even more distressing is the fact that while the nation, from the President on down, was indulging in enormous self-pity, the US continued its drone attacks in Pakistan and Yemen.

Last week the President and the First Lady came to Boston to celebrate the resilience of Bostonians after the marathon attack and to condemn, once again, any acts of terrorism.

They President however forgot to mention that our government, in which he is the Commander in Chief, commits more a terrorist acts, week in week out, than anyone else.

On April 15 a drone fired two missiles into a house in the tribal areas in northern Pakistan. Officials reported the death of four or five “militants.” Two days later there was a drone attack in Yemen. Neither of those appeared in the President’s speeches.

This was reported on the Fox News website. (http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2013/04/15/5-die-in-us-drone-strike-in-pakistan/) Its report ends as follows:

“The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, an independent group, reports that from June 2004 to September 2012, drone strikes killed between 2562 – 3325 people in Pakistan.

Among the dead were anywhere from 474 to 881 civilians, including one hundred seventy-six children.”

We are not at war with Pakistan or Yemen. The drone strikes are clearly acts of terrorism.