Posts Tagged ‘long’

Crashing America’s Military Drones

Friday, February 8th, 2013

3500 humans have been snuffed out since 2004 by unmanned US aircraft. Many of these were innocent civilians (children included) caught in the cross-hairs of a war machine run amok.

Even though Americans will not be made safer by manufacturing new generations of people to hate them, their government insists upon expanding the militarized drone program. They see it as the future of warfare – it’s faster, cheaper and offers less short-term risks than a boots on the ground war.

The US Defense Department doesn’t care that the program wont make Americans safer, for that’s not actually their objective. Instead, they work to protect their own job security, and the millions employed in their death-dealing business. Stir up the hornets nest, keep poking those bears. Anything to conjure up some fright-inducing yet easily subdued foes to scare up the US population. This way the billions and billions of taxpayer dollars keep rolling in while the war-profiteers can stay fat and happy atop the growing pile of bodies.

The ruling class of America don’t want any wars to stop, and drones offer a new frontier of ongoing bloodshed. Just watch the video above, as protesters expose the suffering inflicted upon fellow humans… the rest of the attendees kept their heads down, in silent shame.

You shouldn’t be able to just kill people with no due process – not on any just and civilized planet. They know it’s wrong, but they do it anyway. That’s why there is so much secrecy surrounding the drone program.

Were too many Americans to find out what their government is doing – engaging in long distance mass murder –  the outpourings of dissent might overcome the corrupting influence of an entrenched military industry. Then they will have no choice but to stop cease their crimes against humanity, and peace will gain a stronger foothold over our planet.

While this may be bad for those whose livelihoods depend upon ongoing conflicts, for the rest of us it will be awesome. So let’s keep working to make it happen. Be involved in the movement. Keep spreading awareness about the drone program and give support to others who do the same.

Wars have been on the decline for centuries. A few more years, with enough people involved, war as we know it will be done away with for good.

American Drone Strikes Found to be Illegal and Ineffectual

Tuesday, September 25th, 2012

A recent Stanford/NYU Law study analyses the United State’s growing reliance on unmanned aircraft as remote executioners, and they’ve found out what many of us already know: the use of drone strikes needs to be halted immediately.

Interviewing 130 people in Pakistan about their personal experiences with U.S.-led drone attacks – 69 of which had either survived or lost family to a strike attack – the report builds on findings by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, which counted ‘474 to 884 civilian deaths since 2004, including 176 children’ while ‘only about 2% of drone casualties are top militant leaders.

The report also shows that American UAV attacks violate international law, making them illegal war crimes. Obama is now complicit in human rights violations and should stand trial alongside the Bush Administration.

Furthermore, the team found drone strikes to be ineffectual  and counter-productive, stating: ‘Evidence suggests that US strikes have facilitated recruitment to violent non-state armed groups, and motivated further violent attacks. One major study shows that 74% of Pakistanis now consider the U.S. an enemy.’

So that settles it, right? No more need to prolong the injustice. Tell everyone you know about how wrong drone strikes are, and together we can finally put an end to long distance murder.

United States Committing Mass Murder with Drones

Tuesday, June 5th, 2012

Identify a target based on spuriously gathered intelligence, and then blow them up. When people hear the explosion and come running to help, blow up the would-be rescuers. Then, over the next few days, should any funeral processions be held, blow all those people up too.

It sounds like the actions of some sadist playing a sims game, but it’s not. Unfortunately, these unconscionable tactics are being used right now by none other than the United States government in their clandestine war on humanity.

As Glenn Greenwald reports, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism documented that after the U.S. kills people with drones in Pakistan, it then targets for death those who show up at the scene to rescue the survivors and retrieve the bodies, as well as those who gather to mourn the dead at funerals. Classy, right?

The New York Times summarizes these findings, stating how: “at least 50 civilians had been killed in follow-up strikes after they rushed to help those hit by a drone-fired missile” while “more than 20 other civilians [were] killed in strikes on funerals.”

Unbelievable. No wonder the US establishment is so intent on keeping these wars quiet. If Americans (and much of the world) knew what was going on, there would be so much of an outcry it’d never be allowed to continue.

Fortunately for us (and equally unfortunate for the Military Industrial Complex) the human race is uniting like never before. Disgusting acts of terror, like the US’s use of drone strikes, will no longer stay hidden from the mainstream consciousness.

Soon enough of us will see these strikes for what they are – blatant acts of murder – and those deemed responsible will finally have their feet held to the fire.

 

It Has Happened! US Weaponizes Domestic Drones

Friday, May 25th, 2012

For many years the United States has been murdering foreigners using remote controlled aircraft. Yemen, Somalia, and Pakistan are just a few of the nations targeted by assassination robots sent by America’s clandestine war on the world.

Countless times, myself and others have warned Americans to stand up against the use of these murder-machines before they get used on the American people themselves.

Well, it’s too late. You didn’t listen. And now automated death-from-above has come home to United States soil. That’s right. Drones flying over the US will no longer just be for surveillance… they will now be weaponized.

At first they’ll just use tear gas and rubber bullets. But, as long as the American population remains relatively silent, the path will be cleared for lethal drones to hover overhead.

Bureaucrats and law enforcement given the authority to execute citizens with the push of a button. A chilling notion indeed. If this trend progresses unabated any longer, American’s may find themselves in a situation where protesting against the use of drone strikes becomes an offense punishable by drone strike.

American War Machine Drones On and On

Sunday, May 13th, 2012

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlxJXfdemW8

Bug splat. Have you heard this term before? Bug splat.

It doesn’t have to do with driving on the highway in the summer. Nor does it refer to some quaint touchscreen app, although those involved do use what amounts to a glorified computer game.

No, bug splat is nothing less than the military slang for any human assassinated by drone strikes. Talk about dehumanizing one’s enemies. (more…)

How America Went Rogue – Juan Cole

Wednesday, April 25th, 2012

The United States has a long history of covert actions, like the countless times they tried and failed to assassinate Fidel Castro, or the numerous democracies they toppled in order to prop up US-friendly dictators.

However, such clandestine operations used to fulfill just a fraction of America’s overall military endeavors. But now, as Professor Juan Cole details in his latest article, these secret missions have moved from being “a relatively minor arrow in the national security quiver to being the cutting edge of American power.” (more…)

US Assassinates Dozens of Somali Citizens

Tuesday, April 17th, 2012

In what the UN calls a violation of international law, American drones have reigned death down upon another 30+ Somali people.

Sadly, this news barely made a blip in our mainstream media. Had foreigners bombed one single American, let alone thirty, the news cycles would have blown up, civil freedoms would be stripped, and security would be tightened across the nation for about 10 years.

But because it happens in one of the poorest countries on earth, it’s as if these lives have no value. (more…)

Down with Defence Drones

Wednesday, March 21st, 2012

When it comes to the militarized use of unmanned aircraft, especially if it involves strapping bombs on them to obliterate people remotely (innocent or not), it is imperative that we protest against the use of drone strikes now. Otherwise protesting against drone strikes could become punishable by drone strike.

Taking that sentiment to heart, Ruben Bolling offers us his clever cartoon on the subject: (more…)

Remote Assassins Exhausted With Demand

Thursday, December 22nd, 2011

Throughout my frequent rants against the use of unmanned aircraft as tools of war, I’ve consistently neglected to consider the humanity of the drone operators themselves. In my head, I dismissed them as heartless, glorified-video-game playing, soldier wannabes. But that is not the truth. It turns out they have feelings too.

A recent study by the Armed Forces has found half of all Air Force drone operators experience high levels of job-related stress.

Yet, remarkably, this stress isn’t coming from guilt or remorse over the lives taken by the pseudo-soldiers. Rather, the reported ‘high operational stress’ comes from being overwhelmed with long hours and frequent shift changes due to staff shortages.

That’s right, it’s not that these drone operators are finding it too hard to kill people, it’s that they’ve become too good at their job. These radio-wave assassins can exterminate any threat with such immediate efficacy that demand for their services has skyrocketed!

It makes sense, if you think about it. To start, every Air Force employee will, like any good soldier, be indoctrinated to believe they are fighting for a just cause – be it freedom or protecting civilians or whatever other lie they’ve been sold by the war machine.

Then, on top of this, any atrocities they happen to commit will always occur on the other side of a computer screen. No hearing screaming mothers. No seeing blood and wrecked flesh. No insight into the direct suffering tolled by the population. It’s just – acquire a target, lock on, deploy death – then on to the next one – a system streamlining the whole mess of war with the push of a button.

With murder being dished out via mechanisms monkeys could operate, it’s no wonder military brass aren’t asking ‘Should we do more?’ just ‘How can we do more?’ As evident with the 350 new unmanned aircraft controllers undergoing training right now – more than the number of real fighter and bomber pilots combined – it is clear the use of drones is set to experience massive growth.

But contrary to what those who make their living fighting wars will tell us, the increased use of autonomous death machines is not a good thing for our long-term security. Without a significant public resistance, these drones will be used against us soon enough.

First, they’ll start with drones just for surveillance (like many Americans already face). Then, once the machines are up there, you may as well arm them. But only to use against the worst of the worst, like terrorist or drug dealers. Then, once the population is complacent enough, you can keep escalating your reach until speaking out against the use of drone strikes becomes an offense punishable by drone strike.

And that’s not something I ever want to see, which is why I’m already making noise right now.

NATO Gets Boot for Misplaced Bombs

Sunday, November 27th, 2011

Once again NATO missiles have fallen way off mark. This time, instead of exploding innocent children, NATO slaughtered two dozen Pakistani border patrols.

In response, Pakistan has closed a vital supply line for US forces in Afghanistan, as well as ordered all NATO troops out of the Shamsi airbase – where the Americans reportedly control their remote killing machines.

This goes to show the ease with which soldiers are willing to unleash certain death. The process is so detached, so dehumanized, that enemies and allies and little kids all start to blur together, until it’s just black and white figures being rendered into smoldering body parts.

With bomb-laden UAVs becoming the latest in must-have weaponry, more and more innocents stand being accidentally executed by some bonehead keyboard warrior.

Relying on violence as a tool for peacebuilding is inherently flawed, which is why we need to unite as a species and rally against the military industrial complex. It is time for the whole world to see that war is going away for good!