“Militants”: media propaganda

“Obama himself simply expanded the definition of a ‘militant’ to ensure that it includes virtually everyone killed by his drone strikes.”

• This definition is very vague and not helpful in telling us what exactly a militant is. People who are actively in the military and are fighting against America aren’t the only people who might be in the strike zone. There could be children, shopkeepers, tourists, or a variety of other people who have no military affiliation who just happen to be in the strike zone. By saying a militant is anyone who is killed by the strikes, we are considering many categories of people militants.

“It in effect counts all military-age males in a strike zone as combatants, according to several administration officials, unless there is explicit intelligence posthumously proving them innocent.”

• This claim brings up the term “military-age” males, but does not explain what that age is. Every country might have a different age for when a male can join the military. Someone could be anywhere from a ten-year-old child to a twenty-five-year-old adult and be considered military-age and a military-age male doesn’t even have to be in the military. Unless forced, not every male joins the military.

“I’ve written and said many times before that in American media discourse, the definition of ‘militant’ is any human being whose life is extinguished when an American missile or bomb detonates.”

(Couldn’t fully analyze in time)

• A missile could accidentally go off in a military base and kill American soldiers. By this definition, they are now a militant.

“By ‘militant,’ the Obama administration literally means nothing more than: any military-age male whom we kill, even when we know nothing else about them.”

• Claim I found but couldn’t analyze time.