What Machiavelli would think about the Drones?
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작성자 최고관리자 작성일13-06-16 02:26 조회1,144회 댓글0건관련링크
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What Machiavelli would think about the Drones?
Harold Sunoo
It has been 11years since the U. S. began using Missile-firing drones to attack AL Qaeda in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, and Somalia.
In 2011 Anwar Awlaki, U. S. Citizen was reportedly targeted and killed by a drone attack. Awlaki the fire brand Preacher, born in New Mexico, who evolved to a senior operative in Al Qaeda’s branch in Yemen. Another American also killed was Smir Khan.
Ever since, civil and human rights activists have been asking about the American Killing without due process. According to Justice Department’s legal counsel, Mr. Awlaki was a lawful target because he was participating in the war with Al Qaeda and also he was a special threat to the country. A war time threat posed by Mr. Awlaki qualified, so his constitutional rights did not bar the government from killing him without a trial.
According to the 1st and 5th Amendments, no American Citizen shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law.
The Bush administration argued that, in wartime the executive alone should determine who the enemy is and what measures can be used against him.
But the Supreme Court disagreed. Only Justice Thomas agreed the Bush administration’s position. Other eight justices disagreed. Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, writing the principal opinion, reminded us, “A state of war is not a blank check for the President when it comes to the rights of the nation’s citizens.”
According to the New York Times, “The 2001 authorization has outlived the purpose and become the basis for perpetual war, congress could repeal it now.”(3/10/2013)
The Obama administration ruled that the Executive Branch may not take away our liberty on its own say-so, and morally cites the requirement of a balancing test―individual right against the need to fight a war, and act on his own in targeted killings.
Are drones strikes against U. S. citizens legal? Are drones strikes in general good policy? Could the President order to killing of a U. S. citizen without due process?
Now we are beginning a full public debate on this new form of warfare and it took to nomination of the Obama administrator’s Drone Czar John Brennan, as director of the CIA to force it.
Mr. Brennan is currently President Obama’s top counter-terrorism advisor. His job is required to keep the nation safe from a vicious, determined and ever changing enemy. Therefore he must answer yes to such questions.
Mr. Brennan is a carrier CIA operative with more than 35 years experienced in the U. S. spy business. He was an executive at the highest level in three different administrations. He strongly endorsed the Practice of Targeted assassinations using drones. He is performing his duty as a Machiavellian manner.
Who is Machiavelli? He was born in middle class in Florence, Italy in 15th Century. Florence was a most advanced city-state. He served a minor post in the government. He has written many books, among them, the Prince is most famous.
The Prince is a classic, and still influences in today’s political world. He became one of the outstanding political philosophies in the West.
The Prince is concerned to discover from history and from contemporary events, how principalities are won, how they held and how they are lost. 15th Century Italy afforded a multitude of examples, both great and small. His political philosophy is scientific and empirical based on his own experiences of affairs.
The Prince is very explicit in repudiating morality where the conduct of rulers is concerned. A ruler will perish if he is always good; he must be as cunning as fox and as fierce as a lion.
A prince must on occasion be faithfulness. The question is ultimately one of power, to achieve a political power, of one kind another, power is necessary, end is power. The ends justify the means.
In fact, Machiavelli was a moralistic thinker. He wrote movingly of his love for his city, Florence. His vision of a great and unified Italy was romantic and idealistic.
Machiavelli just had a different concept of political virtue. But he sees the real world is not so romantic. The real world is not possible to rule with clean hands. There are terrorists out there, hiding in the shadows and plotting to kill Americans. So today’s leaders face the Machiavellian choice. Do I have to be brutal to protect the people I serve? Do I have to use drones which sometimes kill innocent civilians in order to kill the terrorists?
There’s another aspect of Machiavellian thought relevant to the drone debate. He puts too much faith in the self-restraint of his leaders. Machiavelli tells us that men are venal self-deceivers, but then he gives his prince permission to do all these monstrous things, trusting him not to get carried away or turn into a monster himself.
Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, was a genius. He was also “frequently obnoxious, rude, selfish and nasty to other people.” according to his biography. He crushed rivals who stood in his path. He enjoyed humiliating people. A journalist commented on his “almost willful lack of tact.” But he was successful building Apple Company. He was a Machiavellian. There are many business men and politicians like Steve Jobs in the world. They believe the end justifies its means. But there are exception, e. g. Bill Gates and Warren Buffett.
American founders were careful. They understood that leaders are as venal and untrustworthy as anybody else. They prohibited concentrated power, and they set up checks and balances system.
Senate Intelligences Committee hearing was to balance the drone issue. Senator Feinstein, the chairman, said she intended to give consideration to a proposal for a new court to oversee the targeted killings, modeled like the electronic eavesdropping. Some other suggestion is that the national security court inside the executive branch may be better than the outside judicial court, because it requires experts, not generalists to decide the targeted killings.
In the long ran, a more important question may be whether the drone strikes, which have killed more than 5,000 people, are creating more enemies for the U. S. than they are eliminating. For example, Pakistan people became an anti-American nation, only 7% of the population accepts the American as her ally. A Pew Research Center poll shows that 74% of Pakistanis believes the America “is the enemy”. The U. S. has helped Pakistan $1 billion a year for past 20 years.
Retired General McChrystal, the former U. S. commanding officer in Afghanistan, has warned that many drone attacks in Pakistan created the country as an anti-American.
The CIA uses “signature strikes” against suspect militants without identifying them individually, can be a bad thing.
“What scares me about drone strikes is how they are perceived around the world.” the general told the Reuters news agency recently. “The resentment created by Americans use of unmanned strikes is much greater than American appreciates.”
Politics in a form of struggle, and the thread of violence can never be eliminated. The means employed can be limited only by the ends they serve. Politicians will have to fight like animals rather than human beings combining the violent courage of the lion with the deceptive cunnings of the fox.
If one takes Machiavelli’s tough-minded view of human nature, one has to be brutal to one’s enemies, but one does also have to set up skeptical checks on the people one empower to destroy them. At the present time, the American public has shown little objection to drones. Some claims that we are in the same position now with drone that we were with nuclear weapons in 1945. But it is inevitable that other countries will follow us. Then What?
American drone policy should take account of American founder’s superior realism.
Senator Feinstein proposes some independent judicial court to review the kill lists become necessary and have more open public debate on the issue.
President Obama in his state of union address said he wanted counter-terrorism to be more transparent and consistent with checks and balance.
Drones are becoming a favorite tool of law enforcement authorities across the country. At the same time drones have evoked unusual discomfort in the public consciousness. They need to put some safeguards in place so they are not abused.
In Seattle, Mayor McGinn answered public protests by banning the use of drones. However, emergency services agencies around the country are just beginning to explore their uses. The Federal Aviation Administration has received about 80 requests for clearance to fly drones. The FAA is drafting rules on how drove licenses will be issued. Meantime, the American Civil Liberties Union said “Drones are a concrete and instantly graspable threat to privacy.”
President Obama should bring national Security as well as protection of citizen’s liberty under the rule of law.
American police forces must win over a hostile public before they can use the drones more freely.
The basic moral concept of the America founders rejected the Machiavellian policy as advocated in the Price.
President Obama should follow the road of American founder’s superior realism rather than Machiavelli’s lion and fox policy in handling drone policy. Thus the U. S. would avoid another ugly American image as it happened with Iraq war and the water-board interrogation of the war criminals.
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