U.S. should not be in the business of assassinations

But the world should wait a minute before accepting all Bin Laden reports as hard facts.  At the time of this writing, no body had been seen, no autopsy taken and no family member or friend had positively identified a dead Bin Laden.

We only have reports from “authorities” and sometimes authorities lie about military killings and assassination attempts.

I remember when I was a little boy I used to tell my mother that I was going to the playground to play basketball when I was really going to sneak over to a girl friend’s house to try to get lucky.

Today our government seems to tell us one thing about American involvement in international conflicts when the truth reveals something totally different. Do you recall the lies about “weapons of mass destruction” in Iraq?

Well, Bin Laden is top news now but what’s going on in Libya?

Initially, we were told that United States and NATO assistance was needed to protect innocent Libyan citizens from an undemocratic leader.

OK, no one should oppose defending the defenseless but “protecting Libyan citizens” turned into a “No Fly Zone,” which turned into undercover CIA operations, into ground troops and into assassinations.

News reports indicate that U.S.-supported NATO attacks were made on a Libyan compound in an attempt to kill Muammar Muhammad al-Gaddafi, Libya’s government leader. Gaddafi survived the attack but his son, some grandchildren and many innocent civilians were murdered in the so-called surgical strike. Crowds protesting the attacks in Tripoli have called for revenge over the reported deaths of Gaddafi's youngest son and three grandchildren in the NATO air strike.

If you die by cruise or tomahawk missile, gas chamber, electric chair, hanging, drowning, firing squad, sniper or NATO bomb strikes, the result is the same: You are dead.

And if one country invades another to change a regime, change a government, change a lifestyle or change a way of life, no matter what you call it today in the past it was called imperialism and or neocolonialism.

Some imperialists once used the Bible to take over a country. Missionaries pretending to be God’s representatives encouraged Third  World and other countries to abandon their culture, discard their values and take up the ways of the invaders.

When Bible use stopped working, “economic hit men” masquerading as members of the Peace Corps or some other philanthropic group built roads to nowhere or huge power plants and giant harbors that could handle cruise ships or battleships and subsequently placed countries into debts so huge that the small nations would never be able to pay back the imperialist lenders.

There are currently more African, Caribbean and South American nations than you think that are forcing residents to pay taxes that go to countries on the other sides of oceans.

I don’t want my tax dollars to finance assassinations. I can go along with protecting citizens from devilish attacks but plots and schemes and false motives to kill leaders of sovereign nations should not be tolerated.

Is it just me or does it seem that Western countries always try to “protect” people where there are natural resources in the picture and couldn’t care less about government mistreatment of citizens in places like Darfur in Sudan?

Are NATO and U.S. Armed Forces protecting people or are they protecting oil? Is Libya activity for American national security or for Israeli national security?

Is the United States helping unknown Libyan “rebels” or are our soldiers helping the United States’ greatest enemies, Al Qaeda remnants, take over a country that terrorists can control?

I don’t know. But I do know the United States is not the world’s policeman.

Ben Laden's death and the attempted assassination of Gaddafi are being celebrated but one day we will realize that “thou should not kill” unless you are a satanic assassin.

Lucius Gantt is a consultant based in Tallahassee. His book, Beast Too: Dead Man Writing, may be obtained at www.allworldconsultants.net