Friday, June 19, 2015
“You Have a Choice': Veterans
Call On Drone Operators to Refuse Orders
Joint statement signed by 45 US military veterans urges drone
operators to follow their consciences and say 'no' to surveillance and
assassination missions
Drone operators at Balad Camp Anaconda, Iraq, August 2007.
(Photo: Air Force/public domain)
Dozens of U.S. military veterans released an open letter
this week urging drone operators to "refuse to fly missions" or
support them in any way—and letting them know that if they say "no"
to surveillance and assassination orders, there is a whole community rooting
for them.
"At least 6,000 peoples' lives have been unjustly taken by
United States drone attacks in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Iraq, the
Philippines, Libya and Syria," states the letter, which was organized by
the education and advocacy organization KnowDrones.com.
"Those involved in United States drone operations who
refuse to participate in drone missions will be acting within accordance of
Principle IV of the Principles of International Law Recognized in the Charter
of the Nuremberg Tribunal and the Judgment of the Tribunal, The United Nations
1950," states the letter. "So, yes, you do have a choice—and
liability under the law. Choose the moral one. Choose the legal one."
The letter's 45 signatories include retired U.S. Army Colonel
Ann Wright, who stepped down from her State Department position in 2003 to
protest the U.S.-led war on Iraq.
Numerous veterans of the so-called "War on Terror"
also signed the letter, including Aaron Hughes, Iraq veteran and organizer with
Iraq Veterans Against the War. Hughes told Common Dreams that he backed
the initiative because he thinks it is "extremely important for those who
are flying those vehicles or doing logistics to know that there is a whole
community out there that supports them in saying no."
Nick Mottern, coordinator of KnowDrones.org, echoed this point
in a press statement released this week: "The people signing this letter
know that they are asking drone operators to take a heavy step, but we feel it
is perfectly legitimate to advise military people to stop taking part in
illegal activity that has killed thousands without due process, is terrorizing
thousands more and is wracking their own ranks with moral injury and
PTSD."
"When our country unjustly inflicts violence on civilian
populations it is our duty to resist."
—Maggie Martin, Iraq Veterans Against the War
—Maggie Martin, Iraq Veterans Against the War
The Air Force recently
revealed that, due to "stressors" of the job, the military
is losing drone pilots and being forced to cut back flights. And in a
Government Accountability Office report (pdf) released in
April 2014, the agency warned that drone pilots are quitting far more quickly
than they are being recruited.
In an article
published this March in TomDispatch, writer Pratap Chatterjee asked,
"Are pilots deserting Washington's Remote-Control War?" He continued,
"Could it be that the feeling is even shared by drone pilots themselves,
that a sense of dishonor in fighting from behind a screen thousands of miles
from harm’s way is having an unexpected impact of a kind psychologists have
never before witnessed?"
Former drone operators, including
Heather Linebaugh, have testified to the horrors inflicted by the remotely
operated lethal weapons. This reality is confirmed by civilians and reporters,
including the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, which tracks the high number
of civilian drone killings in Yemen,
Pakistan,
Somalia,
and Afghanistan.
"When our country unjustly inflicts violence on civilian
populations it is our duty to resist," Maggie Martin, Iraq veteran and
organizer with Iraq Veterans Against the War, told Common Dreams.
"Whether at home or abroad we have to take action to stand in solidarity
with those facing state violence."
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share
Alike 3.0 License
Donations can be sent
to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD
21218. Ph: 410-366-1637; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The master class
has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.
The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject
class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their
lives." Eugene Victor Debs
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