By William Boardman, Reader Supported News, 27 April 13
Who are the terrorists, and can you know one when you see one?
How is President Obama not a terrorist, like President Bush and other presidents before him?
What does it mean to be a terrorist? Isn't someone who commits or colludes in a terrorist act quite simply a terrorist?
What is a terrorist act? Isn't a terrorist act an act of violence designed to murder, main, and terrorize civilians?
Is there a difference between a terrorist act and an act of war? Not necessarily. The bombing of London in 1941 and Hiroshima in 1945 were acts of war, and they were both terrorist acts. The former failed, the latter succeeded, and the ripples of nuclear terror continue spreading almost 70 years later.
American drones, Reapers and Predators especially, are weapons of terror. Sometimes they are aimed at specific targets, sometimes they hit those targets, and sometimes they kill indiscriminately. People on the ground can hear or see the drones, but can't know what the drones will do, and that uncertainty gives drones their power to terrorize.
Even unarmed surveillance drones terrorize populations below, who have no way of knowing if unarmed drones are armed or not.
What Terrorist Wouldn't Love to Have a Drone Fleet?
The drone is the American government's terrorist weapon of choice in recent years.