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LeGarcon Blowout soon fellow Stalker from Skadovsk Since: Aug, 2013 Relationship Status: Gay for Big Boss
Blowout soon fellow Stalker
#141476: Oct 4th 2016 at 6:37:01 AM

Yeah, pretty sure it's the martyr thing than anything.

Like we could probably put a bullet in Snowden's head if we wanted and why would we care what Russia thinks of us? So why haven't we?

Oh really when?
CaptainCapsase from Orbiting Sagittarius A* Since: Jan, 2015
#141477: Oct 4th 2016 at 6:37:29 AM

[up][up] Made a martyr or made an example of?

[up] We care what Russia thinks because Russia is capable of retaliating in kind.

edited 4th Oct '16 6:38:09 AM by CaptainCapsase

Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#141478: Oct 4th 2016 at 6:44:35 AM

As a matter of national political morality, the United States does not put out hits on inconvenient folks around the world like Assange. What individuals within government fantasize about is not relevant.

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
CaptainCapsase from Orbiting Sagittarius A* Since: Jan, 2015
#141479: Oct 4th 2016 at 6:46:06 AM

[up] Actually we do if they so happen to be living in Afghanistan, Pakistan, or any of the other countries where we actually have drones in the air.

We did do that all over the world in the good old fashioned way during the cold war, particularly in Latin America.

edited 4th Oct '16 6:48:58 AM by CaptainCapsase

AngelusNox Warder of the damned from The guard of the gates of oblivion Since: Dec, 2014 Relationship Status: Married to the job
Warder of the damned
#141480: Oct 4th 2016 at 6:50:49 AM

[up][up][up]Martyr.

Unlike most of the people the US has been droning, Assange like it or not is a high profile public figure. Besides can you name any public figure opposing the US that wasn't Omar or Bin Laden? Even then most of those people that were droned weren't top grade assholes leaking information, the sheer majority of them were in terrorist cells or terrorist leaders.

The only ones that have killed a high profile public figure regarding information leak so far were the Russians in the murderer of Alexander Litvinenko, which doing something like this would be a huge PR disaster and tarnish the image of the US even further.

edited 4th Oct '16 6:51:03 AM by AngelusNox

Inter arma enim silent leges
CaptainCapsase from Orbiting Sagittarius A* Since: Jan, 2015
#141481: Oct 4th 2016 at 6:55:32 AM

That list grows tremendously if you include people who were killed by American proxy forces and people who were public figures outside of the western world.

edited 4th Oct '16 6:56:05 AM by CaptainCapsase

M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#141483: Oct 4th 2016 at 7:06:14 AM

[up] If the Clintons really WERE in the habit of killing everyone who got in their way, Hillary would have become POTUS a while ago.

edited 4th Oct '16 7:06:38 AM by M84

Disgusted, but not surprised
AngelusNox Warder of the damned from The guard of the gates of oblivion Since: Dec, 2014 Relationship Status: Married to the job
Warder of the damned
#141484: Oct 4th 2016 at 7:10:16 AM

[up][up][up]Killed in war and killed while working for terrorist organizations is leagues different from killing someone who just happens to be inconvenient and an useful fool working for a data leaking organization.

Tell me, how many journalists and whistle blowers the US has killed directly or indirectly for releasing compromising information?

Inter arma enim silent leges
Elle Since: Jan, 2001
#141485: Oct 4th 2016 at 7:12:23 AM

@Cap: And which of them have we ever even heard of?

Assange is too well known and sympathized with in America to be the target of a hit without backlash and too public to disappear quietly..

edited 4th Oct '16 7:17:33 AM by Elle

CrimsonZephyr Would that it were so simple. from Massachusetts Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
Would that it were so simple.
#141486: Oct 4th 2016 at 7:16:42 AM

Honestly, the best solution is to just let Assange die in that embassy of old age. He might even piss Ecuador enough for them to hand him over. Either way, he's going to be that houseguest that refuses to leave.

"For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die."
Ogodei Fuck you, Fascist sympathizers from The front lines Since: Jan, 2011
Fuck you, Fascist sympathizers
#141487: Oct 4th 2016 at 7:22:17 AM

The more pressing possibility is that a right-wing government scores an electoral win in Ecuador and turns out Assange at the first opportunity to appease the US.

Medinoc from France (Before Recorded History)
#141488: Oct 4th 2016 at 7:22:48 AM

If Assange ever becomes enough of an asshole that killing him stops being inconvenient, it will have become unnecessary long before because people would have lost all trust in him.

edited 4th Oct '16 7:23:29 AM by Medinoc

"And as long as a sack of shit is not a good thing to be, chivalry will never die."
Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#141489: Oct 4th 2016 at 7:24:35 AM

@Capsace: We are at declared war with the terrorist forces in the Middle East and consider them combat kills. They are not political assassinations. You can argue the morality of that all you want, but you must recognize the distinction.

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
CrimsonZephyr Would that it were so simple. from Massachusetts Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
Would that it were so simple.
#141490: Oct 4th 2016 at 7:26:46 AM

[up][up]Political assassination is inherently inconvenient, since it always runs the risk of creating a martyr. Better to just let him reveal himself as the bitter, idiotic Paper Tiger that he is.

"For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die."
CaptainCapsase from Orbiting Sagittarius A* Since: Jan, 2015
#141491: Oct 4th 2016 at 7:36:42 AM

@Fighteer: That's only because the US decided that anyone it kills in a drone strike must be a terrorist and thus counts anyone killed in a drone strike as an enemy combatant. A good number of the people targeted are just people saying unkind things about the US who happen to live in a place where our citizens don't particularly care about us bombing. It's no cleaner than conventional strategic bombing which itself is a form of terrorism by the official defenition of the term.

edited 4th Oct '16 7:41:46 AM by CaptainCapsase

Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#141492: Oct 4th 2016 at 7:40:16 AM

[up] And, by your logic, this means that the U.S. government must be fine with bombing civilians outside of declared war zones? Your biases are tainting your thought processes.

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
flameboy21th The would-be novelist from California Since: Jan, 2013 Relationship Status: I <3 love!
The would-be novelist
#141493: Oct 4th 2016 at 7:41:43 AM

There's a definition of terrorism?

Non Indicative Username
CaptainCapsase from Orbiting Sagittarius A* Since: Jan, 2015
#141494: Oct 4th 2016 at 7:43:26 AM

[up] "Organized violence against civilians for political purposes."

Some defenitions restrict this to non-state actors but I don't see the point. Strategic bombing is frequently a euphemism for "bombing population centers and infrastructure until the local population capitulates.

[up][up] I specifically said Assangr hasn't been assassinated since he isn't in a place.

edited 4th Oct '16 7:47:23 AM by CaptainCapsase

thatguythere47 Since: Jul, 2010
#141495: Oct 4th 2016 at 7:48:40 AM

Guess I should have added an /s

I can't think of the last political assassination the US carried out. Bin Laden, technically, I guess?

Is using "Julian Assange is a Hillary butt plug" an acceptable signature quote?
CaptainCapsase from Orbiting Sagittarius A* Since: Jan, 2015
#141496: Oct 4th 2016 at 7:52:32 AM

[up] That's the last one the United States bragged about. The targeted drone killings are frequently functionally equivelant to political assassinations.

edited 4th Oct '16 7:54:41 AM by CaptainCapsase

AngelusNox Warder of the damned from The guard of the gates of oblivion Since: Dec, 2014 Relationship Status: Married to the job
Warder of the damned
#141497: Oct 4th 2016 at 7:54:56 AM

Bin Laden doesn't even count as a political assassination, he would be closer to the assassination of Pablo Escobar than the assassination of a politician.

Also just because you don't have an state behind you it doesn't mean you can't be a combatant or that makes you only a civilian, Al Qaeda and ISIL are very self evident of that.

[up]Only if you count that terrorist cells and leaders who actively engage in terrorism and attacks count as politicians, which by pretty much almost everyone's definition, they aren't.

edited 4th Oct '16 7:56:50 AM by AngelusNox

Inter arma enim silent leges
CaptainCapsase from Orbiting Sagittarius A* Since: Jan, 2015
#141498: Oct 4th 2016 at 7:59:04 AM

[up] And if the drone strikes were actually limited to such people, I'd be inclined to agree.

edited 4th Oct '16 8:04:48 AM by CaptainCapsase

TacticalFox88 from USA Since: Nov, 2010 Relationship Status: Dating the Doctor
#141499: Oct 4th 2016 at 8:10:48 AM

Look it's either Drones or boots on the ground.

Both have civilian casualties.

The former less so. So drones it is.

It's shitty but it's the way it is

New Survey coming this weekend!
LeGarcon Blowout soon fellow Stalker from Skadovsk Since: Aug, 2013 Relationship Status: Gay for Big Boss
Blowout soon fellow Stalker
#141500: Oct 4th 2016 at 8:12:17 AM

It's always drones. Somehow I feel like people would complain less if it was an F-16 or something.

Oh really when?

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