"My president kills children" (a bumper sticker)

As we inch ever closer to the November election, President Barack Obama is busy honing his stump speech. He’s eager to convince America that he deserves a second term.

It has become apparent that Osama bin Laden’s death will be a key talking point for the Obama campaign. “The Road We’ve Travelled,” a short film released by the Obama campaign, highlights the importance of the killing.

Recent speeches by both Obama and Vice President Joe Biden have evoked the successful “targeted operation” as a reason to re-elect Obama.

The effort might be paying off. Perhaps you’ve seen pictures of proposed bumper stickers and T-shirts that proudly declare, “My president killed Osama bin Laden! How about yours?”

Obviously, some people are convinced that the killing represents a real reason to re-elect Obama. But why should Obama supporters stop with the killing of Osama bin Laden? Allow me to propose a few additional bumper stickers.

In September 2011, a drone strike ordered by President Obama killed Anwar al-Awlaki, an American citizen the Obama administration labeled a terrorist and a threat. No effort was made to arrest al-Awlaki, and he was executed without a trial.

How about a bumper sticker that reads, “My president kills his own citizens without trials!”

While we’re discussing drone strikes, why not make a sticker to celebrate the 268 drone strikes in Pakistan ordered by Obama? There’s plenty to brag about. Obama’s drone strikes have killed between 479 and 811 Pakistani civilians, 174 of whom were children.

The sticker could read, “My president shreds the bodies of children with hellfire missiles!”

It’s not succinct, but it’s true.

But maybe Pakistan is too boring. Let’s look at Afghanistan. After all, Obama has more than doubled the number of U.S. soldiers occupying that nation. That would explain why nearly two-thirds of the soldiers killed in Afghanistan were killed during Obama’s presidency.

It would also explain why more than 10,000 Afghan civilians have been killed during the Obama administration. That means thousands of men, women and children would still be alive if Obama hadn’t needlessly accelerated the war.

Let’s print stickers that read, “My president butchers his own soldiers!” and “My president kills innocent Afghans every day!”

That last sticker might be too vague. It lacks the punch of the Osama bin Laden sticker. We need specific names. So let’s use the names of those killed by Staff Sgt. Robert Bales during his recent rampage in Afghanistan. Without Obama’s commitment to the war, Bales’ murderous rampage never would have happened. That makes our president responsible for those deaths.

Let’s print a sticker that reads, “My president helped kill Mohamed Dawood, Khudaydad, Nazar Mohamed, Payendo, Robeena, Shatarina, Zahra, Nazia, Masooma, Farida, Palwasha, Nabia, Esmatullah, Faizullah, Essa Mohamed and Akhtar Mohamed!”

Any Obama supporter who cheers for the bin Laden sticker but flinches away from these equally valid stickers is a coward.

We should feel deep shame about Obama’s actions, not pride. We owe Obama’s victims that, at the very least.

­— atcrane@indiana.edu