Like most people, you've found a way to rationalize the violence of your government away as necessary, realistic, justified, pragmatic, etc. Everyone has their own words that magically make killing OK.
Entire families of civilians have been destroyed by drone strikes. There is no evidence for the efficacy of drone strikes. There is no evidence that the military actions the USA has taken in recent decades has been at all worthwhile. The people who decide it is justified are the same people who commit the violence.
If it were American families being destroyed all of a sudden out of the sky with no justice or recourse, I think, perhaps you would sing a different tune. Or, perhaps, the death of a few Americans is easily rationalized away. After all, you can just look at the statistics.
There's a reason why the entire political infrastructure of United States can only produce 2 competitive candidates, both of whom are fully in support of global neoliberalism. Yes, if my politics had to be constrained by a system that is specifically interested in denying me alternatives that would challenge its hegemony, then I would pick Clinton over Trump.
But I don't have to. I can say that the whole thing is a rotten mess. Because it is. Eating shit because the chef only serves shit and worse shit isn't rational or realistic. It's just eating shit.
And there will be people who continue to die in order to uphold this hegemony, and so long as they are unimportant people that can be written off as statistical inevitabilities of rational decision-making by the people who benefit from their suffering, I suppose the system will continue receiving the support of people like you?
The thing that puts me off most about mainstream politics is how easily everyone who accepts the system (that includes liberals and conservatives and a whole spectrum of people who accept the basic tenets of the system) writes off the deaths of others. Just what makes you so qualified to rationally decide which deaths are acceptable and which aren't?
On the one hand, I'm not a fan of the two party system, I've done tons of work on that and spent tons of time trying to find solutions that may actually take hold before I die.
As for "what makes me qualified"....well, I'm a citizen in a democracy, and therefore my opinion counts. I'm glad I don't have to make those tough life and death decisions directly, but I am glad someone is doing it and they don't have a "burn it all down" attitude, nor do they have such a black and white view of morality that they are unable to do the best thing for us.
Entire families of civilians have been destroyed by drone strikes. There is no evidence for the efficacy of drone strikes. There is no evidence that the military actions the USA has taken in recent decades has been at all worthwhile. The people who decide it is justified are the same people who commit the violence.
If it were American families being destroyed all of a sudden out of the sky with no justice or recourse, I think, perhaps you would sing a different tune. Or, perhaps, the death of a few Americans is easily rationalized away. After all, you can just look at the statistics.
http://engl210-deykute.wikispaces.umb.edu/file/view/omelas.p...