The Kraken continues the debate from my previous post here, and here.
I stand by my original point that liberals’ lack of criticism of Obama drone strikes as compared with Bush invasions is not due to a political calculation of “civilian deaths were a convenient anti-Bush attack line but now that our guy is in charge we’ll look the other way”. Rather, I believe they are the result of the fact that the drone strikes are significantly more removed from our every day lives than was the invasion. There is less coverage on TV, there are no troops on the ground (for the specific situation of the drone strikes, not in the region at large, obviously), there is simply less exposure. The situation is less emotional. Again I am not saying I think this is the correct way to view the situation, I’m simply offering up an explanation of the relative lack of protest.
Kevin Drum touched on this subject today:
The CIA and JSOC have become largely unaccountable branches of the military. Drone warfare has lowered the cost of war even further. And the reserves are no longer really reserves. They’re practically full-time soldiers.
And the worst part is that all of this is virtually invisible to most of us. The vast bulk of the civilian population, especially among the college-educated elites who run the country, doesn’t serve in the military and never has. In a lot of cases, we barely even know people who have. When we go to war, there’s no WWII-style rationing to worry about, there’s no draft, and there aren’t even any taxes to pay. It’s all free! Is it any wonder that we fight so many wars?
This is precisely my point! War is becoming (has become) so far removed from our daily lives that we have become ambivalent to it. We don’t really know what is going on, and we don’t really care at any rate because it doesn’t really affect us. This inevitably leads to less protesting (as I mentioned) and more war (Drum’s point).
In short, war is easier than it ever has been before. So we fight more of them, and care less about them. This is, I think, the answer to the question originally posed.
520 Chestnut 
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