Exposing the
Killer Drones of Hancock Airbases's 174th Attack Wing
Every first Tuesday of the month since 2010 a handful of us have been
protesting the weaponized Reaper drone atHancock Air Base. In milder weather -
from April to November - we also protest on third Tuesdays. We call this work,
"street heat."
Why such persistence?
Hancock AFB, near Syracuse, our home town, hosts the 174th Attack Wing of the
New York Air National Guard. Although its operations and the identities of its
drone personnel are classified, several years ago in our local daily the
then-base commander bragged that Hancock's hunter/killer Reaper drones operate
over Afghanistan "24/7." (And we must wonder where else.)
Hancock seems
to know that its operations are both illegal and reprehensible. The base,
closed to the public, bristles with armed guards. Its commanders have ignored
our repeated attempts to communicate with them. Given its attack identity and
its attack role, Hancock may be a legitimate target for those whom it attacks.
That means those living near the base risk being "collateral damage."
While seldom
thought of as such in the US, abroad the Reaper is seen as an instrument of
terror - maiming, assassinating and displacing human beings - mostly in the
Middle East and west Asia, mostly in or near the Islamic oil lands. Drone
terror contributes to the refugee crisis now convulsing those regions.
Often the
drone assassins - or their chain of command - don't know the names and
affiliations of their defenseless targets. It seems the intelligence - whether
derived from signals or from client governments and paid informants with their
own axes to grind - is often faulty. Sometimes the targets are combatants,
offensive or defensive; often however the victims are far from any combat zone.
Some are armed males; far too often they are children and women. Frequently
these innocents are in the wrong place at the wrong time - sharing with the
target the same vehicle or compound or wedding party.
Sometimes when
the Reaper's Hellfire missiles - missiles that dismember and incinerate -
strike, the intended target is no longer present or never has been. In a tactic
called "double tapping," those killed are first responders arriving
shortly after the attack to aid the wounded or recover the corpses and body
parts. Sometimes the missiles are deliberately aimed at those attending the
funerals of the casualties of the two earlier strikes - "triple
tapping."
Such drone
strikes may be tactically clever; but - as even some high-ranking US
militarists argue - strategically they are stupid. Although these pragmatic
warriors may or may not respect international law, drone assassination violates
and erodes such law. Generally the killing promotes hostility among the
survivors toward the US (Can anyone - as in the wake of 9/11 - still wonder,
"Why do they hate us?") And the killing also generates hostility
among the victims' fellow tribespeople… and even among those in other nations
horrified by the carnage, cowardice and iniquity of it all.
The killing
undermines any efforts by our boots on the ground to win "hearts and
minds." Some other nations and entities are building or importing (usually
from Israel) their own drones. Proliferation makes no one safer; one day
proliferation will endanger our own leaders and armed forces. US drones are
already targeting US citizens overseas. As we keep getting de-sensitized to
drone lawlessness and that lawlessness keeps getting normalized, domestic police
and Homeland Security may be tempted to target demonstrators, dissenters and
minorities.)
***
We demonstrate
outside Hancock on Tuesdays from 4:15 to 5 pm - rush hour. Our handheld signs,
in bold, block letters, declare: DRONES FLY, CHILDREN DIE; or TO END TERROR,
STOP TERRORIZING; or REAPER DRONES ARE INSTRUMENTS OF TERROR; or STOP HANCOCK
WAR CRIME…. Hundreds of vehicles drive past - some drivers and their passengers
avert their eyes, some make rude gestures, others honk in support.
But we're not
trying to reach only the public. We especially want those driving on or off the
base at shift change to see us. In their controlled environment Hancock
personnel surely have little exposure to criticism of drone killing, but our
signs are hard to avoid. Maybe our steadfast - year in and year out - presence
get drone operators thinking. We're all about sowing seeds, pricking
consciences. We hope that eventually some base personnel will - as the
post-World War II Nuremburg Principles require - refuse to follow their illegal
orders. Ideally they'll go public with what they know.
The Pentagon
seems to be having a tough time recruiting enough personnel to maintain and
operate all the killer and surveillance drones it hopes to deploy. The Pentagon
dreams of expanding its drone fleet well beyond its current capacity; it dreams
of achieving full spectrum dominance over the world's skies. Every state or
non-state leader, friend or foe, can then feel their vulnerability, thereby
muting resistance to the imperium's demands.
At our monthly
and twice-monthly demos we stand directly across East Molloy Road from
Hancock's main entrance and exit. In doing so we exercise our First Amendment
right of expression and assembly (which, if unexercised, tends to wither). Once
several years ago, exasperated with our presence, Hancock summoned the sheriffs
(who seem to know little about the First Amendment). A couple of us were
arrested, but even in the hostile DeWitt Town court the charges were dismissed
"in the interests of justice." Since then, during these demos, the
police have left us alone - though scores of us have been arrested at other
times when, in separate nonviolent actions, we've ventured across Molloy Road
closer to Hancock's main gate onto what the base claims is its property. But
that's a whole other story.
Our Tuesdays
at Hancock help get us out of our armchairs and "into the street."
Our demos tell the war machine that, whether or not it's in our name or with
our tax money, we don't tolerate the killing. Arguably, world-wide it's the
street, in crisis after crisis, that might correct regimes straying too far
from decency and democracy.
Street heat is
one kind of voting that may make a difference. Certainly there would be more
impact if more of us participated, whether at Hancock or at other killer drone
bases. But even if there were only one of us, s/he would send an essential
message. However, if no one is ever there, that absence sends its own - fatal -
message: that drone terror is somehow normal (and not cowardly and vile); that
the US public is indifferent to killing, indifferent to international law.
Sadly the
Hancock drone operatives, some barely out of their teens, allow themselves to
become robots - deadly, amoral robots - in a vast imperial, oil-soaked
enterprise. Hancock itself is only one of many hundreds of US military bases
throughout the US and the planet. Fortunately, though generally ignored by the
mainstream media (which rarely dare apply the phrase "war crime" to
US military policy), protests like ours occur at various bases operating
weaponized drones. Inshallah, such resistance will go viral.
Given that
most US Congressional districts have military contracts - whether linked to
drone research and development and operations or to other weapons systems -
there usually are sites (bases, research centers, factories) nearby to protest.
These are opportunities for more of us to get out of our armchairs and into the
street.
If our
demonstrating can help de-glamorize the drone and diminish drone operator
recruitment and re-enlistment, the souls and lives we save will surely be worth
the few hours a month we spend exposing the operators' often naïve complicity.
"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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