MORE ON DRONES

More Drone Bombs

Twice as many drone bombings were made this year than last. This week such a raid “incinerated three trucks” suspected of carrying fighters and weapons in Pakistan. (SF Chronicle 12/28/10) Last I noticed we are at war with Afghanistan, not Pakistan. The report did not confirm that fighters were killed only that people were killed. Civilians are often killed in these drone attacks. Neither the military nor the media can confirm who gets killed. Is it any wonder hat the United States and our military are so hated around the world with such heartless wanton killing in a country with whom we are not at war?

Here is an article I wrote a while back on this subject.

Killing by Remote – by Robert Warren Cromey

Killing people in war is bad enough. Killing civilians is very bad. Killing suspected terrorists is bad. Killing suspects without due process of law, without a hearing or a trial is very bad. Killing innocent people in suicide bombings is very bad. Killing people with rifles, handguns and knives is also bad.

But killing people by remote control is evil and cowardly. Worst yet the Obama administration has dropped more bombs in nine months than the Bush people did in three years.

A soldier today controls drone aircraft thousands of miles away. He is sitting at a desk at a computer. Using technological targeting, she presses a button that drops bombs on buildings and people. What a wonder of science. What a skillful new way of waging war. What ingenuity we humans have.

So what is wrong with such activity?

1. It has no emotion in it. It is done without feeling. The soldier works the shift, drops the bombs and then goes home to dinner with the family There may have been some thought and feeling at first but after a while those are numbed as they become routine office activities like playing computer games.

2. No one but the victims see and feel the damage. Only they suffer. The perpetrator sees or feels nothing of the suffering and death caused by his or her action.

3. Killing by remote is cruel. It inflicts punishment and death on unsuspecting human beings who may or may not be military or even enemies.

4. The drones destroy villages, primitive buildings, caves and tents. They are not directed at big cities or industrial complexes.

5. No medical help is provided to the victims of remote bombings. Since the bombings are always a surprise medical aid to the wounded will be delayed and perhaps not available at all in remote villages and caves in Afghanistan.

6. There is no way to determine the success or failure of the mission. The perpetrators are not on the scene. Ground forces may or may not be near enough to assess the results of the bombing. The victims’ accounts will no doubt be exaggerated and inaccurate.

7. Since the victims have no way to fight back directly they will find other ways to retaliate probably using so-called terrorist activities all the more. The families and friends of the victims will be very good candidates for extremist organizations. They won’t be lining up to join the U.S. and NATO forces.

8. It stimulates more hate and rage in the surviving victims. They have more reason than ever to hate our country, do all they can, by whatever means to drive our soldiers from their native soil. Thus more and more of our soldiers and their families will be wounded and killed.

9. “What is the greatest contradiction of our time? The US continues to fight ‘terror with terror,’ Current and past administrations cleverly define this strategy as ‘counterterrorism.’

One only needs to look at US Code 18 Section 2331 for further proof. An act of international terrorism, according to it, involves:

A) Violent acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State, or that would be a criminal violation of committed within the jurisdiction of the United States or of any State; B) Intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population, to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping.

Is that clear enough?”

The US Government says it is now legal to kill women and children if it means one drone attack can kill one militant or terrorist.

The worst evil of all is that the CIA, not the Air Force or the military direct the drone program. The CIA is a rogue organization that virtually is independent of the foreign policy of the US. Its skullduggery has killed innocents, corrupted duly elected governments and brought ruin and disrespect to our country’s freedom and all we stand for.

All of this makes the action of extremist Muslims who bombed the World Trade Center seem quite justified.

Every American should be ashamed of this particular way of waging war. We in the church should stand strong criticizing this cowardly and evil way to wage war.