How We Play the Game

Trey Smith

One of the maxims that parents used to share with their children -- I do not know if this still holds true -- is: It doesn't matter if you win or lose, but how you play the game.

Leaving virtue aside, there is a very pragmatic reason to abide by this sentiment. If you or I cheat, it is an invitation for other players to cheat as well. Since few of us like to be on the receiving end of someone else cheating, it just makes sense not to steer the game in that direction.

It's such a shame that this simple message seems lost on US government leaders!

The US policy of using aerial drones to carry out targeted killings presents a major challenge to the system of international law that has endured since the second world war, a United Nations investigator has said.

Christof Heyns, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings, summary or arbitrary executions, told a conference in Geneva that President Obama's attacks in Pakistan, Yemen and elsewhere, carried out by the CIA, would encourage other states to flout long-established human rights standards.

In his strongest critique so far of drone strikes, Heyns suggested some may even constitute "war crimes".
~ from Drone Strikes Threaten 50 Years of International Law, Says UN Rapporteur by Owen Bowcott ~

You see, if the US refuses to abide by international law, we only encourage others to do the same.

How does this combat terrorism?

It doesn't. It encourages it! If other nations and groups see the US thumb its nose at the rules over and over again, why should anyone else pay them any heed?

Again, I am purposely leaving virtue, morality and ethics out of the equation since nation-states tend regularly to ignore them anyway. This question is based solely on a pragmatic approach to international relations.