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For the past 12-13
years’ drones have been used as a war tool by the American government, with an
intention to determinate possible Al Qaida followers and terrorists. But using
such a device is not only killing a possible terrorist but also a big amount of
innocent people along with them. To use drones as a device within war has been
an ongoing debate between the government and the citizens in both America and
other countries. Is is morally alright to kill a bunch of innocent people if
that means that one possible terrorist is killed? How do the people behind the
drone remote feel after killing a large amount of people with just a press of
the button?
What is a Drone?
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A
drone is a remote-controlled weapon system controlled by satellite, which
allows a military person to control a drone from places like Nevada to places
across the world. This was first use
within war when in 2001, the white house was contacted by the CIA, saying that
they had developed the capability to arm a drone with explosives. After a lot of consideration and meetings, the
white house agreed that using drones to eliminate Al Qaida would be seen as
legit self-defense and not as murder. Weeks
after the terrible attack on the twin towers in New York, George Bush, at the
time president of the United states, signed a secret agreement letting the CIA
fly across the globe to kill Al Qaida followers and people related to them.
Still, there is no reported ongoing war between Pakistan and the United States,
but the bombing continues.
The search for
potential terrorists is a long process. They are targeted by a set of criteria,
for example, if someone walks around with a gun, or if they are annually
visiting an area tied to Al Qaida or the Taliban’s. Classified U.S.
intelligence reports that the US, in fact, had no idea who they were they were
targeting, even if Obama numerous times had said that all people they have
killed are given an identity. An article
written in 2015, estimated that there are roughly 1.000 drone pilots, known as
18Xs, working for the U.S. Air Force and another 180 pilots graduating annually
from a year-long training program at Holloman and Randolph Air Force bases in
New Mexico and Texas.
Recruiting
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As I briefly
mentioned before, a drone is controlled by a person sitting in a booth with a
joystick and waiting for the right time and the command to fire off the drone
to the targeted area where the possible terrorist is. A very common source the US military uses when
recruiting soldiers for drone pilots is video games and other virtual reality
related themes. A documentary made by
Norwegian Tonje Hessen Schei (Hessen Schei, tonje. Drone, n.d.)
, reviled that
children down to the age of 12 were also targeted for recruitment by the US
military.
A lot
of video games now a day have their plot in war and guns, and people recruiting
for drone pilots often come to think that steering a drone is a lot similar to
gaming, which can give the US military the benefit of getting more recruiters
for drone pilots. The reason to why
video games are a very effective source is because by playing video games, you
often sharpen your capability to concentrate, and you become more aware of
where you have to aim and who the “bad” guy is. Recruiting video gamers has gone so far that
the US military made an own video game named America´s Army, potential pilots
play with real sound effects to make people want to become a drone pilot. One thing pilots may realize after being a
pilot for a while is that what they thought would be easy, ended up affecting
their mentality.
Before it was mentioned that in 2015 the US
air force was annually recruiting 180 drone pilots. At the same time, around 250 pilots dropped
out. Brandon Bryant, a former drone pilot for the U.S. Air Force, mentioned
that one of the main reasons to why people quit, where how they were treated
and how the killing of lives was too much to handle. He never quite imagined
how it would feel to kill someone, but the first time he did, he felt the world
fall around him. Hearing people around him cheering because their target was
eliminated, was too much for him. A
pilot, such as Brandon would spend up to 12 hours shifts in a small booth, so
of course, it was affecting their mental health. Some booths even had a picture of the 9/11
bombing hanging in the room, just to remind the pilots what the “enemies” have
done before and are capable of doing again if they don´t stop them first.
Innocent killings
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The numerous attacks against Al Qaida
followers are of course given a positive outcome on the part where you actually
kill important Al Qaida member but are the out cost overweighing the benefits?
Is it okay to kill a handful of innocent civilians if that one member gets killed?
On the picture to the right, you can see that from 2004 -2013 that a total of
2537-3646 were killed, and 49 of them were high profile militant of the Al
Qaida. That leaves us with up to 200
children killed, up to 951 civilians killed and a total of up to 2446 unknown
people killed. (Hessen Schei,
tonje. Drone, n.d.) Someone lost their child or
their parents and back in the United States, we are celebrating that we killed
one person we assumed was a member of Al Qaida.
During the Obama Administration, there were
numerous reports, including one by a former drone pilot, saying how a missile
fired from a U.S. drone hit an area, where when bystanders rushed to the scene
to help the wounded, the drone returned and killed the rescuers too. Another
report showed us how drones have struck at funerals of drone-strike
victims. In July 2011, the Bureau of
Investigative Journalism commissioned a Pakistan-based reporter named Mushtaq
Yusufzai to investigate the reports of the attacks.
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Mushtaq reports about Hasukhel, a small
village 4 km south of Mir Ali, Waziristan´s second town. On May 24, a number of
people had gathered around and inside of the mosque to do mornings prayers.
Some people were done praying and were sitting outside enjoying the summer
temperatures, when drones attacked the gathering and killing four people,
thought to be Arabs and Turkmen. Some
minutes later a group of people including men from the local Dawar tribe
arrived to rescue the injured. While
they were pulling bodies out of the rubble, the drones returned and fired four
more missiles killing more people. These
three attacks are just some out of the long list of reports showing how drone
attacks are out of hand. These killings
will only lead to more people hating the American government and the recruiting
for Al Qaida members will grow tremendously.
Distance only makes us act more harshly because we aren’t the ones in
danger.
A moral speculation
Killing thousands
of innocent people is never the solution, no matter how effective the solution
is. We aren’t the one to decide who has the right to die or not. America may
say that they are killing in defense, but do we see any drones shooting
missiles in the United States? No. This
war is a one-way war between U.S. and Pakistan, where Pakistan is getting fired
on and the U.S is living peacefully. By
killing all these civilians, the U.S has managed to break both article 1 and 2
of the human rights, saying that all humans are born free and equal in dignity
and rights, and everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set,
without distinction of any kind. The
only reason to why they have not been taken to court or anything is done with
this problem is because of the fact that the CIA and other military groups is
because they are simply saying that they are only eliminating the people who
they see as a threat to the nation and people linked to earlier terror attacks.
The human rights
lawyers fight hard to stop the drone attacks. Not only are the drones taking
lives, but the force of the drone missiles causes collateral damage to building
around, which would cost a lot to build up again. It´s sad to see how small
children like my nephew or little brother, plays with missile pieces like it’s
a toy, how they have to run for their life when they see a bird because it
resembles a drone. No one, young or
elder, should go every minute praying that a missile won´t drop and kill them.
They are so desperate to stop the drone attacks, that they print out large
photos of adults and children whose been affected by the war, so that maybe if
they are lucky, one pilot will have a heart and try to stop the terrible
actions.
Conclusion
Drones were never
the answer and is never going to be the answer.
By using drones, they only increase the chances for attacks and a real
war against the United States. I know
they meant all the good intentions when they started with drones, on the other
hand when the outcome is several civilian’s deaths it´s not worth it, not at
all. Not for the benefit of the American government nor the people in America.
Sources
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Hessen Schei, tonje. Drone, n.d.
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Woods, Chris, and Yusufzai Mushtag. “Get the Data : The Return of
Double - Tap Drone Strikes,” August 1, 2013. https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2013-08-01/get-the-data-the-return-of-double-tap-drone-strikes.
·
Unknown. “Why Drone Pilots Are Quitting in Record Numbers,” March 7,
2015. http://www.salon.com/2015/03/06/a_chilling_new_post_traumatic_stress_disorder_why_drone_pilots_are_quitting_in_record_numbers_partner/
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Pictures taken from from Google.com/ Drone Movie.
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