Is the Boston Bombing the “Moral Equivalent” of Drone Strikes?

Bill Anderson

I have been thinking this through for a while. President Obama was rightly outraged at what happened yesterday at the Boston Marathon and I hope the perpetrators are brought to justice. At the same time, however, Barack Obama presides over bomb attacks on civilians, attacks that occur without warning, and attacks that not only kill alleged “militants,” but women, children, and the elderly, especially when the bombings are launched at weddings, which one would think would allegedly be a joyous celebration just as the Boston Marathon has been.

While Obama demands justice in the Boston bombing, he is silent about his own role in setting off bombs in overseas countries. If Sen. Lindsey Graham is correct and the U.S. drones have killed about 4,700 people abroad, then we are talking about something that dwarfs the horror of what happened at Boston.

I am not speaking of tit-for-tat. However, I am sure that the horror that people in Muslim countries experience at a drone strike is every bit as awful as what people experienced in Boston yesterday. I do not believe that we are free to denounce the evil at Boston and cheer on the evil our government perpetrates overseas. We must denounce both or risk being the worst hypocrites on the planet.