No Shelter from the Drones of Infinite Justice or the Bacteria of Enduring Freedom
Afghanistan president Hamid Karzai said recently that he had had an argument with Gen. John Allen, the top US commander in Afghanistan, about the issue of American drone attacks in Afghanistan, following yet another deadly airstrike that killed a number of civilians. Karzai asked Allen an eminently reasonable question: Do you do this in the United States? The Afghan president added: There is police action every day in the United States in various localities. They dont call an airplane to bomb the place.[1]
Karzais question to Allen was rhetorical of course, for can it be imagined that American officials would bomb a house in an American city because they suspected that certain bad guys were present there? Well, the answer to that question is that it can be imagined because theyve already done it. In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
On May 13, 1985, a bomb dropped by a police helicopter burned down an entire block, some 60 homes destroyed, 11 dead, including several small children. The police, the mayors office, and the FBI were all involved in this effort to evict an organization called MOVE from the house they lived in.
The victims were all black of course. So lets rephrase our question. Can it be imagined that American officials would bomb a house in Beverly Hills or the upper east side of Manhattan? Stay tuned.
Read more:
http://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2012/07/04/no-shelter-from-the-drones-of-infinite-justice-or-the-bacteria-of-enduring-freedom/