United Liberty
63% Oppose Giving President Discretion to Kill American Terror Suspects on U.S. Soil
Wed, 03/06/2013 - 12:12pm | posted by Jason Pye
While the Obama Administration making the claim that it has the power to use drones inside the United States to target and eliminate potential threats, a Fox News poll released on Monday shows that Americans are not at all comfortable with this prospect:
The poll finds that 32 percent of voters think that yes, the president should be able to authorize the use of deadly force domestically against an American terrorist. Still, about twice that many — 63 percent — disagree and want checks on the president.
Again, agreement is bipartisan, as most Republicans (70 percent) and independents (70 percent) and a majority of Democrats (54 percent) oppose the president having the sole power under these conditions.
There were actually two different questions in regard to President Obama and drone strikes, one of which was a general question about the policy. The other was a more specific question about giving the power to determine who should be target to the president.
Here are the two questions:
- Do you approve or disapprove of the United States using unmanned aircraft called drones to kill a suspected terrorist who is a U.S. citizen on U.S. soil?
- Do you think the president of the United States, on his own, should be able to authorize the use of deadly force, such as a drone strike, to kill a suspected terrorist who is a U.S. citizen on U.S. soil?
On the first question, the divide wasn’t that wide. According the poll, 45% — including 44% of Democrats and 47% of Republicans — approve of using drones to kill an American citizen suspected terrorism inside the United States. Only 50% disapprove.
The second question reflected a deeper partisan divide, one that is reflective of today’s politics. While only 32% of respondents the president having the sole discretion to an American citizen suspected of terrorism, 41% of Democrats are perfectly fine with this. Only 26% of Republicans supported the idea.
The poll also found that 74% of Americans approve of drone strikes against suspected terrorists in other countries. Only 22% disapprove of these targeted killings, which often kill innocent civilians.
According to a study by the law schools at Stanford and New York University, as many as 881 innocent Pakistanis — including 176 children — were killed in drone strikes over the course of an eight year period. The study also found that drones have had a profound psychology impact, “giving rise to anxiety and psychological trauma among civilian communities” due to the fact that “[d]rones hover twenty-four hours a day over communities in northwest Pakistan, striking homes, vehicles, and public spaces without warning.”
The numbers on the homefront are good news, but unfortunately, too many Americans don’t see the bad side of drones overseas, which is a failure of the media for not reporting on these incidents when they occur. It’s not a sexy as the latest pop-culture news or the scandal of the day.
H/T: Hot Air
They don’t understand that the word “terrorist” can be a citizen who is opposed to war or a person secretly videotaping corporations breaking laws. Those people are also labelled “terrorists” in the FBI files.
The problem is that Fox News has no reputability. They make this stuff up as they go as does all of the commercial/mass media outlets.
I’m betting the numbers opposing are much higher, but I’d like to see an unbiased poll/study.
If it weren’t for Foxnews Channel, we wouldn’t know the other side of the story. They’re number 1 for a reason KA9MoT.
The longer Obama is allowed to decimate this country, the longer it will take to rebuild this country. I just hope the Obama supporters learn a very valuable lesson from this which will make this a much stronger country for future Dictator wannabes!
Is a party so important that you have to overlook common sense to see what Obama is trying to do to this country. Democrats must be a special breed of followers.
There Hiding drones in california at ? clue. Where they use to keep the shuttle. I worked for Nortrop grumman and had a level-3 security clearance. A few months back I saw one at sundown flying over at about 20,000ft. There not Bullet proof! A 308,or 30-06 in the right place will bring one down. I don’t recommend anyone trying to take one out. They are so advanced in locating an attacker! God Help us! Obama and the UN want us disarmed so we cannot figh back. Hopefully Rand Paul and others can stop this madness and that Dictator Nazi Obama!!
This is still america, aren’t we innocent until proven guilty. What no trials anymore, just shoot if you are suspected of being a terrorist. This sounds bad, if we let his get away with this, what will be next.
THE BULLSHIT THAT OBAMA IS DOING IS GETTING WORST AND MORE AMERICANS WILL BE DESTROYED Y CAUSE HE CAN .
Obama seems to think he doesn’t need approval of the American people to do as he wishs, even kill us if he wants.
i read these comments and tears fills my eyes we r suppose to be americans and human beings yet the president can say shoot .wat about the children that
will be left behind or even worst killed y cause its wat was oredred to do this is not right its just not america the free only the brave.god needs to send his only son again to bring peace into the world.people whom ever is reading this please pray with me .where ever u r pray.right now there is no more time.
Will he start with Bill Ayers? I don’t think so, he already has law enforcement to take care of this, why does he need this power. He has his own definition of a terrorist and that would be any gun carrying, Bible toting Christian who opposes him. This would be like putting Hitler in charge of a Jewish concentration camp.
After all Obama has done for this country which to anyone with half a brain is obvious, you can not trust the media which is controlled by guess who. History is clear Obama is about to do what Hitler could not. He has to be stopped. What will it take to get fat ass American’s off the couch and marching in the streets demanding that our Constitution remain unchanged and Obama impeached. I hope that your children or you are not killed in a drone attack. Wake up you lazy bastards or face death that is certain for anyone who dares speak against King Obama.
The question is poorly phrased because it doesn’t give the conditions upon which such a strike would occur. If it were asked, “Would you support the President authorizing a drone strike against an American citizen if it were the only way to prevent another 9/11?,” I’m sure the responses would have been very different. Since that is all that’s being advocated, it would be a much more fair one too.
This is pretty scary, I never thought I would be afraid to live in my own country.. It was always about those “other” countries I was glad not to live in. Its now this country where we are at a point of no return. The man behind the mask is a wolf and is licking his chops.
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