Religious Leaders Call on President Obama to Reconsider His Position on Drone Strikes

http://www.alternet.org/world/religious-leaders-call-president-obama-reconsider-his-position-drone-strikes

ix religious leaders from across the country joined together during the week of Easter to call on President Obama to reexamine his position on drone strikes. In briefings and explanations to the American public President Obama's administration has used Just War Theory to justify CIA and U.S. military use of drone strikes throughout the world. Joining forces with director and producer Robert Greenwald, these rabbis, reverends, and priests created a short video sharing why drone strikes in Pakistan violate Just War Theory.

Watch the video below from WarCosts.com:



"As a religious leader, I feel compelled to speak out against drone warfare because it is being presented to the American public as following Just War criteria," said Rev. Dr. Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite, Professor of Theology at the Chicago Theological Seminary. "It does not; there are too many questions concerning the continuing authority for a 'War on Terror,' to the protection of civilians, to the lack of transparency about the program, as well as others, to call this Just War. Drones are particularly dangerous as they tempt us, as well as other nations, to consider war 'easy' and 'cheap.' The age of drones, unless checked, will be an age of permanent war."

"While visiting Pakistan this fall I witnessed the anxiety and terror civilians face due to our drone strikes in the region," said Robert Greenwald, director and president of Brave New Foundation. "I went to investigate how these strikes, operated in secret by our Government, control and intimidate Pakistani civilians."

"The use of remote-controlled drones to assassinate targeted persons without charge, trial, or even at least the chance to surrender, is about as un-Christian a maneuver as I can imagine," said Rev. Dr. Paul F. M. Zahl. "I decided to protest this inhuman policy because it goes against the core principles on which I've built my life."