By Debra Sweet

One of the questions raised in World Can't Wait's discussions with supporters was what should we — who oppose the projector of US military domination on the Mid East in particular, which has strengthened reactionary Islamist movements including the Islamic State — should do to help others not be pulled into cheering the crimes of our government, but be moved to oppose them?

Two writers I've met in my years directing World Can't Wait wrote recently about how people living in this country are being influenced to think by being denied the truth of what the U.S. is doing.

In Where’s the Rule of Law in Our War on ISIS? L. Michael Hager looks at how key institutions in this society looked the other way, or justified crimes:

"TV anchors and newspaper reporters blithely echo the demands of political candidates that the U.S. “carpet bomb” Islamist targets and “take out suspected terrorists” anywhere in the world. They ignore international laws and conventions that put a strict limit on preemptive strikes and prohibit the endangering of civilians."

More distressing is the general failure of our religious institutions, universities and bar associations to speak out against the current degrading of the rule of law. Why has there been no strong outcry from the nation’s premier law schools as they witness military strikes that violate the UN Charter and international conventions? Why do they ignore the lack of due process, indefinite detention and the inadequacies of jerrybuilt “military commissions?”

Why have our churches, synagogues and mosques not questioned human rights violations (some detailed in the recent Senate report summary) including the now regular use of drones for targeted killing and the reliance on torture and force-feeding?

John Hanrahan, an editor at ExposeFacts.org, asks how the opposition among the US public to drone strikes could be higher in Killer Drone News Blackout Continues As Mainstream Media Ignore 4 Whistleblowers:

"How well informed can U.S. citizens be on this subject when the major news media time and again ignore or under-report drone-strike stories — as we have discussed here and here in recent weeks? Stories — such as The Intercept’s October series based on a trove of classified materials provided by a national security whistleblower — that would likely raise serious questions about the drone program in many more Americans’ minds if they were actually given the information?"

Drone whistleblowers from left: Cian Westmoreland, Michael Haas, Brandon Bryant and Stephen Lewis. Photograph: Simon Leigh for the Guardian