Conscience expressed: Drone strikes equal collateral massacres

© Unknown
A wall painting in Yemen.

Do you have a moment? Would you mind entertaining a humble question? Why does our government want to drive a wedge between America and the rest of the world by using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) or drones in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen? It isn't accomplishing anything.

A study by Stanford Law School and New York University's School of Law notes the number of Islamic terrorists killed as a percentage of total casualties in drone strikes stands at a paltry 2 percent. The study also casts doubts on Washington's claims that these attacks produced few civilian casualties. An investigation by the human-rights group Reprieve indicates that drone bombings on al-Qaida members in Pakistan resulted in the death of 874 innocent men, women and children. In Yemen 17 men were targeted and 273 people (seven of them children) were killed in the process.

The use of drone warfare is a disaster-in-the-making. When you kill people who are not the enemy, you simply create more enemies.

Members of Veterans for Peace (VFP), Code Pink and other anti-war groups recently went to Creech Air Force Base in Indian Springs, Nevada to protest America's use of drones. They temporarily closed the base and 38 protestors were arrested, including retired Humboldt State University biology professor Richard Gilchrist.

Why would an 80-year-old Humboldt County resident and the founder of Six Rivers Running Club go to such lengths to halt the U.S. drone bombing program?

"I never thought I'd spend my later days in demonstrations and getting arrested," said Gilchrist, "but that what has happened since my knee will not let me run. I would much prefer running, but I can't ignore what we are doing around the world."

Drones have been sold to the American public on the claim that they're "precise" and "a sound weapon of choice." In reality, they are only as accurate as the intelligence that feeds them. Drones kill, maim and traumatize innocent people. They are counter-productive and (like Guantanamo) one of the best recruiting tools ISIS and al-Qaida ever had.

Proponents of drone warfare insist that it's a better option than boots on the ground. They argue that drone strikes beat carpet bombing. But do we usually carpet bomb countries we consider our allies and haven't declared war upon?

Would you support the use of drones on a terrorist cell here at home? What if they accidentally wiped out a dozen school children? I doubt that any of us would stand by while our government killed innocent Americans with a remote-controlled weapon that rains death from the sky.

The drone war is carried out remotely, from the U.S. and a network of other military bases around the world. VFP members carefully observe what goes on at these locations. "The U.S. is planning on expanding our drone program," said Gilchrist. "This will mean that more children will be killed. We call those who kill indiscriminately 'terrorists,' but what do we call our drone program? It was interesting to watch the cars go onto the base and leave in the later afternoon. What a way to fight a war. You never have to muss up one's hair. Just kill a few, go home, and have a cocktail."

© Julie Jacobson / NBC News

Drone warfare has been fed to us as a surgically precise way to kill. We have no skin in the game. Politicians and war profiteers believe this makes everything more sanitary and acceptable. It makes civilian deaths much easier to justify, too. But Americans can no longer pretend that our policy of drone strike vigilantism is going unnoticed by the international community. Drones are considered a coward's weapon. For every bit of "collateral damage" they inflict, they create more deep-seated hatred against the U.S. For every al-Qaida "target" a drone attack eliminates, it spawns more terrorists who are intent on exacting retribution against us.

What does drone warfare say about the direction our country is headed in? I believe it's a broader symptom of how quickly we resort to violence. Someone is a threat? Shoot 'em. Someone looks like they might be a threat? Shoot them, too. It's no different than how the police in our country deal with black men — use extreme force. Maybe it's time we wake up, slap ourselves upside the soul, and ask how we can ever hope to achieve a durable peace by sitting at computers and "unintentionally" killing people thousands of miles away with Hellfire missiles.

We might be destroying our enemies, but the fallout from the "collateral massacre" will impact us for years to come.

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