Lux Lucet

Why were we flying a drone over Iran? – Rep. Ron Paul

Much has been made of the lost American surveillance drone recently captured by the Iranians. The Pentagon has lied about it, John Stewart has made fun of it, and Obama has asked for it. But what is important in all this is the question, what was it doing there in the first place? As usual it took the temerity of Ron Paul to ask this important and – as far as our masters of the universe in the government and media are concerned – impertinent question.

Many Americans take it for granted that the US has the right and the duty to bomb, occupy and spy on the rest of the world. They take it as a matter of course that the US ought to engage in these activities and become angry should anyone suggest otherwise.

But God never commanded Israel to spy on its neighbors as a regular practice. Yes, spies were sued on occasion, but this occurred only during times of war. John Robbins made this point quite well in his essay The Sine Qua Non of Enduring Freedom. He wrote,

A related foreign policy question is the matter of spies, for perhaps the predominant function of embassies today (and perhaps whenever they have been used) is espionage. Ancient Israel used spies, but only during war and for short periods of time. Just as there was no standing army, so there were no standing armies of spies and diplomats. God commanded Moses to ‘Send men to spy out the land of Canaan,’ one from each tribe…

Some of this spying was commended by God, and perhaps all of it was, but we are not told that all of it was done at God’s express command. But spying was used exclusively during wartime. Spying on other nations was not a normal, peacetime practice of either the Hebrew republic or the monarchy. It seems clear that spying on one’s neighboring governments during peacetime, even more than maintaining embassies that harbor spies, is a form of prohibited foreign intervention. It can hardly be argued that God’s command to Moses justifies the regular use of spies, for the command was very specific: Spy out the land of Canaan. Espionage, except during wartime, is not a proper function of government..

The absence of both resident ambassadors and spies is the norm.”

The Bible commands individuals and governments to mind their own business (1 Thess. 4:11), but peacetime spying is anything but that. If anyone objects that droning Iran is not an example of peacetime espionage because we are at war with Iran, I would ask him to show me where the Congress has declared it.

And if anyone supposes that regular espionage is fine because it is done only to bad men from bad nations who deserve it but has no implications for the civil rights of American citizens, I would point out that the airport porno scanners, warrantless wiretaps and vanishing financial privacy we have come to enjoy in the post 911 world all suggest that what the feds do over there doesn’t stay over there, but rather that both the foreign and domestic surveillance apparatuses are in reality two sides of the same lawless federal coin.