… Because I could not and would not bring myself to obey the orders of a Commander-in-Chief who has decided he can arbitrarily murder American citizens without benefit of due process, trial by jury, or any other quaint, Constitutionally-protected rights.
I am quite serious about that. Were I still active duty today, I would be drawing up my resignation paperwork and submitting it for the earliest date my contract would allow.
And lest you think I am overreacting, consider this news report, courtesy of Say Uncle. As you can see from the comments at his post, there is some disagreement as to the meaning of "targeted", and whether or not the drone(s) in question are armed or whether or not those behind the control of those machines have any intention of employing them as weapons platforms against the supposed Los Angeles cop killer, but given the Department of Justice white paper, it obviously is not outside the realm of possibility any more.
I dare say use of armed drones, without benefit of even so much as a kangaroo court trial, against American citizens on American soil – should such a thing come to pass – well and truly takes Obama far beyond the mere title of "tyrant".
Read the white paper for yourself – it is not short, and the author(s) very carefully couch their language in all manner of mealy-mouthed legalese rationalization, but the intent is more than clear. Granted, this is simply one symptom of the overall decline of our American experiment, but it would count as my own personal Rubicon.
Of course, this news report, courtesy of my father, would count as another Rubicon, if it is true:
Even discounting the numerous – and completely intentional – limitations on using United States military forces within the country’s borders, the fact that such a question is (supposedly) being seriously asked anywhere in the military is indicative of a very serious problem within its command structure and our government itself.
For now, all of these various datapoints are hovering at the very border of "believable" and "conspiracy theory", but there is an interesting aspect to the latter phrase that people always forget – just because you have a theory that there is a conspiracy does not automatically mean it is not true. The phrase "conspiracy theory" has developed a lot of negative connotations over the years, but conspiracies do and have happened, and theorizing about them is the first way to discover them. Is there a conspiracy going on right now? Hell if I know. But I do know that a country that has purchased in excess of 1,790,154 firearms in the past month alone is not a country gearing up to turn all of those firearms back in…
…Neither is it a country preparing for a particularly peaceful future, either.