695 - Peace & Life: Pres Immunity/Jan 22 double anniversary - January 12, 2024
Presidential Immunity and Murder
Since an appeals court case on a claim of presidential immunity is on Donald Trump’s mind, he recently reposted this from Mike Davis: “So Democrat judges in DC suddenly pretend President Trump doesn’t enjoy presidential immunity, like all of his predecessors for 250 years? Does that mean the Trump 47 Justice Department can indict President Obama for his extrajudicial murder of a 16-year-old American citizen?”
The citizen he refers to is Abdulrahman al-Awlaki (pictured), who was killed with others in a targeted drone strike in Yemen on October 14, 2011.
But this problem is definitely bipartisan. Abdulrahman’s half-sister, Nawar al-Awlaki (pictured), was 8 years old, and also an American citizen. She was killed in Yemen on January 29, 2017, by being shot in the neck during a military raid ordered by Trump.
Why innocent kids should have to be U.S. citizens to have killing them be called murder is a question we can’t answer. Still, even calling it murder for only U.S. citizens would mean that U.S. wars would have to stop, to keep U.S. citizens from being murdered. Such citizens are all over the world, and it’s in the nature of war that it can be counted on to kill indiscriminately.
Day of Horror and Hope
January 22 has for decades been commemorated as the anniversary that the Roe v. Wade decision came down, with an annual March for Life in Washington D.C., a West Coast Walk for Life in San Francisco, and local events all over the U.S.
As of 2021, January 22 has also become the anniversary that the U.N. Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons went into force. Nuclear weapons are now internationally illegal, though those countries that actually possess them are ignoring this. There will be local events all over the world.
We encourage everyone to attend local events for both of these – and letting others know about both of these can help them know about connections.
Our post on the first anniversary of the treaty in 2022, when the Dobbs case was in the works but wouldn’t come down until June 12: Day of Horror and Hope.
Our Latest Blog Post
Sarah Terzo recently posted about suicide among veterans. In this follow-up piece, she expands –Tragedy Spreads: The Impact of Veterans’ Suicides on Families.
Quotation of the Week
The New York Times, January 9, 2024
There are approximately 50,000 pregnant women in Gaza, all struggling . . . According to the World Health Organization, of the more than 180 women delivering babies each day, 15 percent are likely to encounter complications and be unable to obtain appropriate obstetric and pediatric emergency services. All the while, the threat of injury or death from bombings and military action looms, as does unimaginable emotional trauma.
If these mothers and their children manage to survive the war, they will grapple with its effects for the rest of their lives. Health research into multiple areas of armed conflict (such as Syria, Afghanistan, Somalia and Kosovo) reveals that these kinds of conditions are linked to an increase in miscarriages, congenital abnormalities, stillbirths, preterm labor and maternal mortality.
Note: Since she refers positively to pregnancy terminations in this article, Dr. Rothchild is clearly not pro-life. But the point she makes is one of the connections we make; see our blog post Wars Cause Abortion.