Drones, Haji Omar, & Jesus

“For the death of a man [Qari Hussein] whom practically no American can name, the US killed 128 people, 13 of them children, none of whom it meant to harm.

Attempts to kill 41 men [in Pakistan] resulted in the deaths of an estimated 1,147 people, as of 24 November.

In Yemen, 17 named men were targeted multiple times. Strikes on them killed 273 people, at least seven of them children. At least four of the targets are still alive.

Even for the 33 named targets whom the drones eventually killed — successes, by the logic of the drone strikes — another 947 people died in the process.” (Source: The Guardian)

We talk a lot about collateral damage when it comes to war. We all know about it. Some people insensitively celebrate the death of an individual while ignoring the lives that were taken at that individual’s expense. We talk about eliminating targets, which feels much more sanitized than murdering or assassinating them. It’s cleaner.

Just like drone warfare is cleaner. It’s more precise. It has a great risk-reward benefit to the U.S. Someone can sit in a room across the ocean and murder an individual without having to risk his or her own life. And, since we all know that American lives have more value than Pakistani or Yemeni or Syrian or Somali lives, it’s just a better way of getting the job done. We are told that the death of Haji Omar, the ‘Finance Minister’ of ISIS, by drone strike will deal a damaging blow to ISIS’ ability to carry on financial duties and tactical missions. What we aren’t told is that the U.S. had tried unsuccessfully several times to murder him — they just killed a bunch of people unintentionally.

Or, perhaps we consider the 150 trainees with Boko Haram in Somalia who were killed in an airstrike, both manned and unmanned, by the U.S. earlier this month. We are told that there was intelligence to suggest an imminent attack on the U.S. by Boko Haram, which is why we needed to attack first. Because us killing them before they have a chance to kill us is justice, right? We are told that this will make it more difficult for Boko Haram to recruit new trainees. Really? A preemptive attack by the U.S. is going to make recruiting more difficult? We really must understand that radicalization and recruitment to terrorist organizations goes hand in hand with these sorts of actions by the U.S. We also need to consider the fact that thousands of non-targets have been murdered by us as well. That should at least cause us to pause and reflect on what exactly we stand to gain by using drones to kill targets.

The logic behind drone warfare is that it is better for one man to die than for an entire nation to be put at risk. This is the logic that killed Jesus 2000 years ago, proposed by the High Priest Caiaphas: “Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish” (John 11:50). Perhaps we think that Jesus’ death was justified, or was only important because it paid for our sins. But that misses the entire political atmosphere of first century Israel. What Caiaphas was saying is that Jesus, the insurrectionist preacher, rabbi, and faith healer, needs to die or else the Jewish people would risk losing the power and independence afforded to them by Rome. Since Rome operated on a policy of executing political insurgents and revolutionaries, it seemed good to Caiaphas to advocate for the ‘elimination’ of Jesus.

This is what empire does. It uses its power to murder individuals that put its power at risk. What we fail to recognize is that this sort of policy never actually gives the empire what it desires: security and a feigned sense of peace (meaning lack of conflict or war). Every empire has lived by this ideology, and every empire has fallen by it as well. When we put our own interests above the interests of others, when we put a higher value on our lives than the lives of others, we are putting our own security and desire for peace at risk.

One might argue that Jesus has nothing to do with Haji Omar. One is a terrorist and the other was the Son of God. On the contrary, Haji Omar represented a risk to U.S. interests. He was a threat to our empire. Likewise, Jesus represented a risk to Jewish/Roman interests. He was a threat to that empire. Both were executed. And, I would add that I believe Jesus has everything to do with Haji Omar, for it is on behalf of Haji Omar that Jesus died. He took all sin and destruction upon himself, and broke down the dividing walls of hostility between enemies, so that we could build bridges out of the pieces.

The peace of Christ, the shalom of God, is not about eliminating risk. It is about reconciliation — human to God, human to human, and human to creation. Our only hope in this world is to live in ways that demonstrate, through concrete actions, that we have compassion on strangers and enemies. If we are unable to see the dignity of the 150 humans whose lives were summarily eliminated in Somalia then we are utterly lost. If we are unable to see the divine image in our enemies, then we are doomed to continue repeating the histories of empires that have fallen before us.

May we pause and reflect, seek reconciliation, and encourage our leaders to do the same.