AMERICA TAKES UP ROMAN PROSCRIPTION ---BY DRONES

Of all the revelations that are the most hurtful and embarrassing to an American who loves his country and wishes it well is that of the government’s policy of targeted killings of individuals abroad under the claim that they are enemies of the state. In recent times, even American citizens have been killed, and some were as young as sixteen years of age. They were only ACCUSED of crimes. They were not tried in a court of law, or in absentia, or even had a malleable judge cast an eye over their case. They had no opportunity to face their accusers, or even minimal opportunity to defend themselves. The President writes a list of people he wants killed and he or his advisors act as prosecutor, judge, jury and executioner. This is definitely not the “American Way" I learned of as a student. I was taught that Americans are exceptional and here to lead the world to a better more humane place, not draw it down into repetition of ancient barbarity. The policy of former President Bush and now of President Obama is indeed barbarity, reminiscent not of an American Republic, but more akin to the worst depravity of the latter Roman Republic of two thousand years ago.

 In those archaic days they did not refer to “extra juridical executions” but called it simply “proscription”. The Roman word derives from “proscribe” to put outside the law, outlaw, or condemn something which is dangerous or harmful. Who would have imagined as a student reading Gibbon’s “Decline and Fall of the Roman Republic” and shuddering at the thought of how the Roman leaders used the infamous “proscriptio” which acted to speed its descent into chaos, violence, corruption and death. Who would have imagined that our own nation would ever countenance such horror? And then by bald faced lies attempt to justify it. Yet we have.

 Proscription is the policy of public identification and official condemnation of enemies of the state first used in the Roman world of the first century BC. Proscription as employed by the Romans was the violent elimination (murder) of political opponents, rivals or even personal enemies, which occurred during violent revolutions. Proscription is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as a "decree of condemnation to death or banishment". The word is heavily charged in a political sense since it in fact simply refers to illegal state-approved murder or persecution. It was not confined to the First Century BC but has reared its ugly head in more recent politically chaotic times as well,in times and places that we as Americans would probably not like to be associated with...yet we are. Proscription occurred during the ugly “reign of terror” of the French Revolution, and during the political violence that ensued in Argentina after the fall of the Peron government. These were times and characters that we as a nation would not like to be associated with...but Bush and Obama have in fact involved this nation in “state approved murder”. We must fully appreciate that fact and understand it in its historical context.

The earliest incident of proscription I know of occurred in 82BC in Rome, when Lucius Cornelius Sulla, after defeating the forces aligned against him was appointed dictator by a weakened and frightened Senate to make changes to the constitution and repair the Republic. Sulla who was described by a contemporary as having the “cunning of a fox and the courage of a lion” proceeded to direct the Senate to draw up a kill list of those he considered enemies of the state and have the list published in the Roman Forum. Does this seem familiar? Perhaps the only difference from modern times was that Sulla had no technical means (no drones and cruise missiles) to secretly assassinate his enemies, so he published his list and let it be known that each person on the “proscriptio” list was stripped of his citizenship and excluded from all protection under law. Thus anyone could kill and were encouraged to kill the listees with impunity. To encourage them, Sulla provided reward money to be given to anyone who provided information leading to the death of a proscribed man. The weaknesses of the system were obvious. It permitted accusers with ulterior motives to fall prey to corruption and greed. The President’s kill lists are similarly filled and established by CIA paid informers. In Sulla’s day any person who killed a proscribed man was entitled to keep part of his estate (the remainder went to the Roman treasury). We haven’t fallen to that level yet.

The victims of Roman proscription were decapitated and their heads were displayed on spears in the Forum. Bush and Obama have had no similar option in our own times, since their victims are generally completely obliterated by high powered munitions delivered from armed drones or cruise missiles. The blast not only vaporizes the intended target but is so overwhleming that it too often kills many other bystanders and innocents. (Though the present government counts all those killed near-by as "terrorists", an so never kills any innocents.). The Romans by contrast were very specific in their viciousness only the man on the list was killed, his family, wife and children were spared.

Sulla used proscription to help restore the depleted Roman treasury which had been drained by costly civil and foreign wars in the preceding decade, and to eliminate enemies (both real and potential) of his reformed state and constitution. Bush and Obama used their form of proscription to pad their domestic political fortunes, to insure reelection, to lower the costs of war in difficult terrain, and terrorize the purported enemy, their families and supporters, as well as insulating the President from the Republican charge of military “wimpishness”.

Sulla's proscription was bureaucratically overseen, as are the modern USA practitioners of this form of murder, and during Sulla’s time the names of informers and those who profited from killing proscribed men were entered into the public record. In later years and under succeeding Roman consuls these informers and profiteers could and were prosecuted under Roman law as criminals. There the Romans were well ahead of those in the USA who use state-sanctioned assassinations today, for our present government has kept “secret” those who are supporters and practitioners of these immoral, illegal and unconstitutional acts. We only know that both Bush and Obama, like Sulla...were initiators of the policy and signed off on each instance of killing. We as American citizens, apparently have no hope that in the future the guilty will be prosecuted for these barbaric acts. Unless we act to stop it, we are guilty too.

Got the picture?

rjk