Predator Drone Firing Hellfire Missile

Unmanned killer robot planes have convinced certain people that there is a better way of waging war.

But these drones have now made the United States as unpopular in places like Pakistan and Yemen as any nation has ever been in another.  Making our nation hated does not make us safer.  It endangers us.

These drone wars are not a reduction in war-making but an expansion.  They’re underway in nations the United States was not previously at war with.  They’re beginning to result in the addition of ground troops, the opposite result of the image we have in our heads of drones taking the place of ground troops.

Drone pilots in Afghanistan have been targeted and killed.  Drone pilots in the United States suffer PTSD at higher rates than real pilots.

Drone victims are 98% innocent civilians according to a recent Stanford/NYU study.  The other 2% are targeted victims of murder without charge, trial, due process, or in many cases even knowledge of the target’s name.

Drones buzzing over houses traumatize children before they kill them. That those children are (in most cases) not American hardly diminishes the immorality.

Drones are rapidly being developed and deployed by other nations.  It is time for Americans to ask themselves: Do I support the equal right of other nations to kill with drones in the United States?  And if not, why not?  And how can I apply a different standard to my own government?

Did you know that the White House has refused to allow Congress, the institution charged by the U.S. Constitution with making every law, to see its legal reasoning that supposedly justifies killing men, women, children, Americans, and non-Americans anywhere on earth without any charge or trial?

Did you know that even the current president believes no Republican president should ever be allowed the powers he has himself created?

The following organizations have decided to do something about this: Read the rest of this entry →

Drone nose (photo: Feuillu / flickr)

Once again nonviolent protesters of U.S. drone wars have been arrested at the gates of Hancock Air Field in New York State.  Thursday morning, 19 people blocked the three gates to the base for a period of hours beginning at 8 a.m.  Eventually, the front gate was opened after 11 people were arrested, including Elliott Adams of Veterans For Peace, as well as James Ricks, Bonny Mahoney, Paul Frazier, Ed Kinane, Mike Perry, Judy Bello, Andrea Levine, Dan Vergevin, Paki Weiland, and one other.

Signs held up to block the gates said: “Drone war crimes: extrajudicial killing,” “Drone war crimes: killing civilians,” “Drone war crimes: wars of aggression,” “Drone war crimes: violations of national sovereignty,” and “We will not be complicit in our government’s war crimes.”

Eight people continued to block two other gates after the first 11 arrests.  Four of them were arrested at around 10:15 a.m., including Brian Hynes, Clare Grady, Mary Anne Grady, and Martha Henessy.  Henessy is Dorothy Day’s granddaughter.  Adams is a descendant of Sam Adams, as well as being Past President of Veterans For Peace, and current Nonviolent Training Coordinator.  Adams has been arrested repeatedly at Hancock.  Adams told a judge earlier this year:

“I am proud to accept the consequences of my acts and any jail time.  I do not want any suspended sentence. If you give me one, also please let me know how I can violate it before I leave the courtroom.”

“It is outrageous,” Adams remarked upon one of his arrests last April, “that on the other side of this fence people are being murdered, albeit at long distance, and the Sheriff will not even investigate. On this side of the fence we are arrested for a ‘violation of permit requirement.’”

Present on Thursday were the Onondaga County Sheriff’s Department, the DeWitt Police, and the New York State Police.

BACKGROUND:

Veterans For Peace Members Arrested Protesting Drones
http://www.veteransforpeace.org/pressroom/news/2012/06/29/veterans-for-peace-members-arrested-protesting-drones

Veterans For Peace Among 33 Arrested Outside Drone Base in New York State
http://www.veteransforpeace.org/pressroom/news/2012/04/23/veterans-for-peace-among-33-arrested-outside-drone-base-in-new-york-state

Veterans For Peace was founded in 1985 and has approximately 5,000 members in 150 chapters located in every U.S. state and several countries.  It is a 501(c)3 non-profit educational organization recognized as a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) by the United Nations, and is the only national veterans’ organization calling for the abolishment of war.