I'm a college student, and I've been kicking this idea around for a while. This is my first diary, so go easy.
On one hand, I've been a pretty steadfast defender of Obama's domestic agenda, even if he hasn't been as progressive as I'd have liked. I also have a hard time getting mad at him for the failure to close Gitmo, as he at least made an attempt to have KSM and others tried in federal court that was blocked by Congress. I even give him some leeway on the NDAA, as it was a military appropriations bill that passed with a veto-proof majority (although I still think he could have handled it better.)
It's foreign policy that gives me pause. From a pragmatic standpoint, Obama has been a wildly successful foreign policy president; the death of bin Laden, the dismantling of al Qaeda, the successful exit from Iraq, and the success in Libya are all undeniable victories. But Obama's continued use, and indeed expansion of, the drone program is something I'm strongly opposed to.
I'm not opposed to the use of drones. For as much hand-wringing as it caused among civil libertarians, I think the al-Awlaki killing was actually a model of how targeted killings should be- isolated, with collateral damage limited to another al Qaeda member. Sadly, too many civilians have been killed by these machines (one is too many), and I can't justify the expansion of any program that kills innocents, including children. Using them in urban areas is reckless and irresponsible, and Obama's failure to crack down on "willy-nilly" drone strikes, let alone his expansion of them, is just awful.
So can I still volunteer on the Obama campaign with a clear conscious? Please note that I'll be voting for him regardless, but I don't know if I can actively campaign for him due to this drone program expansion.