Going It Alone

Trey Smith

There remains a widespread perception that the U.S. acts unilaterally and does not consider the interests of other countries. In predominantly Muslim nations, American anti-terrorism efforts are still widely unpopular. And in nearly all countries, there is considerable opposition to a major component of the Obama administration’s anti-terrorism policy: drone strikes. In 17 of 20 countries, more than half disapprove of U.S. drone attacks targeting extremist leaders and groups in nations such as Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia.

Americans are the clear outliers on this issue – 62% approve of the drone campaign, including most Republicans (74%), independents (60%) and Democrats (58%).
~ from Global Opinion of Obama Slips, International Policies Faulted via the Pew Research Center ~

In recent years, American presidents have made a big deal about "coalition partners." When we decide on the next country we wish to invade, we don't want it to look like we're making a unilateral decision, so we trot around the globe strong-arming our allies and independent nations to give us a big thumbs up.

However, when world opinion definitely is NOT on our side, then the need for these coalition partners is less important. American presidents basically say to everyone else, "Screw you! We're going to do whatever we damn well want!"

Sadly, it isn't just our leaders who are choosing to go it alone. As the Pew survey indicates, the majority of citizens in 17 countries oppose our drone campaign, while only Americans overwhelmingly approve. It seems that this so-called Christian nation isn't half as moral or ethical as we like to think we are.

It blows my mind that nearly 3/4 of Republicans -- the political party most associated with fundamentalist Christianity -- think that blowing people to kingdom come fits into their savior's vision of peace.

In the past month, I dealt with the Sermon on the Mount in the Tao Bible series. Maybe I'm simply getting old and my memory isn't as good as it used to be, but I don't recall reading something like Blessed are the drones for they shall be called the children of God!