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Willing to listen not frightened to speak.

Wednesday 5 October 2011

Extrajudicial killings and a one term President


The extrajudicial  killing of two American citizens in Yemen, ordered by President Obama has set  another dangerous precedent  that has serious and far reaching implications for the US Constitution and its controls on the restraint of executive power.
At some point the American government changed its policy of kidnapping terrorist suspects and flying them to Guantanamo for trial,  to just killing them. The presumption of innocence until proven guilty and the right to a fair trial or even unfair trial blown out the window by the drones they employ or in the case of Bin Laden the Navy seals that made up the assassination squad.
This must surely be a deeply disturbing development and Obama's refusal to allow the advice he was given to be interrogated publicly bodes badly for his presidency.
For an eloquent man he has become increasingly incompetent and unable to convert his vision either at home or abroad.
The economy is in shambles, his confused and hypocritical foreign policy especially with regard to the Arab Spring and his continued blind support for Israel , is isolating America and harming its long term interests. From a man of promise he has become a man of promises.
Gone are the chants of " Yes we can"  and now only faint echoes of the man who was elected can be heard.
Whether it is the office of the Presidency that has caused this insolence or whether the advice he is receiving is tainted and corrupt only time will tell, however this looks increasingly like a one term Presidency.
In the meantime, as he reflects on his opposition to a Palestinian state or he grapples with the murders he has ordered for political gain he would do well to remember the following thought from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr: "There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic…but one must take it because it is right".

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