General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: I knew - KNEW - the guilt trolls would show up before long. [View all]GaYellowDawg
(4,764 posts)I have no direct responsibility for drones. None. I have never piloted a drone. I have never ordered an attack. I have never been a part of the decision tree on any level, from the President down to the controller. I have never built a drone, or repaired a drone, or programmed a drone, or armed a drone. I have never participated in drone attacks; therefore, I have no direct responsibility for drones. You could make the argument that I have indirect responsibility for drones, but you have no place spreading the LIE that I or any of this board bears direct responsibility, unless you know specific DU posters who are part of the aforementioned decision tree.
And I don't think you have a good argument for indirect responsibility. We had four choices, the last election:
1. Vote for a President who uses drones.
2. Vote for an incredibly shallow, rich man who would have used drones.
3. Vote for a third party candidate who had zero chance to use or not use drones.
3. Don't vote.
Sometimes, in life, there is no such thing as a good choice. There's only the choice between bad choices, and if you're backed into that corner, you can't really be held responsible as if you had a good choice. If there were a major party candidate who made the cessation of drone attacks a campaign plank/promise, then I would bear indirect responsibility for the attacks if I didn't vote for that candidate. I did not, however, have that choice.
I voted for the President in order to keep Mitt Romney out of the White House. I had a choice between two candidates whom I viewed as Republican Lite, and Republican Fanatic. I have no reason to believe that Romney would have stopped the drone attacks. I have no more control over our government's use of drones than I do any government's policy. The cold, hard reality of being a United States citizen is that we have little awareness of our our government's policies, less control of them, and our politicians have no accountability for them. The best we were able to hope for with the last Presidential election was to try to elect the one who would do the least damage to us while ignoring our opinions. That does not translate to an endorsement of, or responsibility for, drone attacks.