NOT ALL KILLINGS ARE EQUAL

While the death of two innocent people in the siege of a Sydney cafe  received saturation  media coverage the deaths of hundreds of innocent  people  from American drone attacks has received scant coverage in the mainstream media.

WHILE THE KILLING of two innocent people in a Sydney cafe was a terrible tragedy it was also the result of actions taken by a lone gunman who justified his criminality by cloaking  himself in the garb of Islam.  

For John Key to suggest that the crazed gunman had direct connections to ISIS beared no relationship to the reality of the situation. But clearly  Key saw it as an opportunity to bolster his case for sending troops off to the Middle East to assist in the battle against the terrorist organisation - and another chance to justify the recent expansion of the surveillance state via the Foreign Fighters legislation.

The saturation media coverage of the siege and its aftermath  was in stark contrast  to the corporate media's disinterest in the United States drone campaign. This is not an act of isolated violence by an mentally unbalanced gunman but an on-going and planned assault from the world's greatest military power.

Across Pakistan,Yemen and Somalia, the Obama administration has launched more than 390 drone strikes - eight times as many as were ever launched by the Bush presidency. These strikes have killed more than 2,400 people and  at least 273 of them reportedly civilians, including many children.

Journalist Jeremy Scahill has said that the taking of these innocent lives amounts to murder. In a 2013 interview  the director of the Oscar nominated documentary Dirty Wars said:

"It's murder--it's mass murder--when you say, 'We are going to bomb this area' because we believe a terrorist is there, and you know that women and children are in the area. The United States has an obligation to not bomb that area if they believe that women and children are there. I'm sorry, that's murder."

Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai met President Obama in 2013 and expressed her concern about the drone attacks. In a later statement she said that she had ""expressed concerns that drone attacks are fuelling terrorism. Innocent victims are killed in these acts, and they lead to resentment among the Pakistani people."

But the corporate media continues to ignore the drone attacks and their implications. Apparently the killing of innocent people in faraway lands like Yemen and Pakistan  are just not as important or relevant  as the killing of two innocent people in a cafe in Sydney.