Ray on Drone “Warfare”
Drones and Hellfire Missiles represent a growth industry, creating more and more “militants” to fight and ensuring protracted conflict cum protracted profiteering. This seems to be part of what the U.S. commander in Afghanistan calls the “new normal,” guaranteeing, as former Gen. Petraeus predicted, a war that “our grandchildren will have to keep fighting.”
President Eisenhower no doubt is rolling over in his grave. He warned us about the Military Industrial Complex; we let it happen; now it is driving our participation in ongoing wars and inspiring new ones. Watch out, Iran.
Drones have as much chance of being effective instruments in stopping “militants, insurgents,” as B-52s had in Vietnam. They are widely perceived as cowardly, as well as indiscriminate in the death and destruction they deal.
The drones’ Hellfire missiles are now firing with precision accuracy at targets served up by very dubious “intelligence” that are paragons of imprecision. Their use against targets in Somalia, Yemen, as well as Pakistan and Afghanistan has stirred worldwide derision.
Over the last few days I have been invited to comment on all this.
By CNN? You ask. What planet have you been living on?
PressTV is sponsored by Iran. Do they have axe to grind? Of course. Can they use what is happening to criticize and isolate the U.S.? Of course than can. Can the truth hurt the U.S.? Sure.
It can also set us free. It’s the only thing that can.
Here are URLs referencing a couple of recent interviews, followed by URL to a Washington Post story on how we can deliver Hellfire onto teenagers, too. (Sadly, it does not seem possible to blame that killing on imprecise targeting information.) Below the WaPo story, I paste in a glorious example of how our disingenuous diplomats are trying to defend the indefensible. One is left wondering if, beneath their glib exterior, they are even aware of how transparently ridiculous they seem to a world that, up until this Century, was often more inclined than not toward giving official U.S. spokespeople — and U.S. policy — the benefit of the doubt.
1- DRONE WARFARE: The Implications – Ray interviewed with 2 others, “War Creating More Enemies for U.S.” 23 min. (10.17.11)
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/205118.html
2- Ray via Skype on drone strikes in Muslim world (10.16.11)
Mission Impossible: Justifying Assassination by Drone – Our Diplomats at Work
By Patricia Lee Sharpe (courtesy of John H. Brown, one of the three Foreign Service Officers who promptly quit in early 2003 when it became clear the U.S. was about to attack Iraq)
The following is a excerpt from a transcript of a press conference held several days ago in a not entirely friendly country somewhere in the Middle East—although it might have taken place most anywhere else, for that matter.
A U.S. diplomat whose job description requires him/her to explain U.S. policy to the local media faced an assembly of representatives of said media—print, TV, electronic, et al. The diplomat was a highly regarded officer who is at home with twitter, texting, Facebook, etc. Unfortunately, like all too many Foreign Service officers filling public diplomacy slots, he/she has no significant training or experience in public diplomacy and he is not an area specialist. We are told that his/her emotional range during this encounter oscillated provocatively between timidity and belligerence.
At this point in the press conference, the Dream Diplomat needed to convince a roomful of fearless, skeptical, articulate, well-informed journalists that it was legally and morally justified for the U.S. to neutralize U.S.-born Islamist Anwar Al-Awlaki by sending a missile-armed drone to do the job.
The relevant section of the transcript is as follows:
Journalist: This was obviously a very controversial act. Could you give us the legal thinking behind it?
Dream Diplomat: Sorry, that’s classified. But hey! We hit the target on the nose this time. No wedding parties. No sleeping kids.
Journalist: I thought the CIA said that never happens.
DD: Yes, well, um—that’s kind of classified, too. Commenting on it, I mean. We don’t affirm or deny it.
Journalist: Well, can I conclude that it would be equally ok for Ahmedinajad to take out John Bolton, assuming the Iranians had drones, as everyone will, eventually? He’s been pushing to get you guys to bomb Iran for years.
DD: Of course not.
Journalist: So Americans can assassinate. Bin Laden. Al Awlaki. Whomever. However. But you object when the Iranians go after the Saudi ambassador to the U.S. How come?
DD: There’s a difference. I just can’t discuss it. You have to trust me. You have to trust us.
(Laughter.)
Journalist: On another topic, the Afghans are mistreating prisoners evidently—
DD: Yes. And Secretary Clinton has informed them that we disapprove, very strongly, of abusing prisoners.
(More laughter.)
Journalist: So we really can’t get a copy of that al Awlaki legal justification?
DD: Sorry. Even American journalists can’t get their hands on it.
Journalist: You mean Americans don’t know what it says either?
DD: Nope! So, no one’s discriminating against you guys! Now some people say there’s considerable leaking going on, which may or may not be true. I can’t affirm or deny it. But you can be pretty darn sure the leakers will get what’s coming to them, once they’re identified.
Journalist: Jail?
DD: Could be.
Journalist: Must be wonderful—living in a democracy.
(Tittering.)
DD: It is. That’s why we want you to copy us.
Journalist: We are. Oh, we are. And that’s no laughing matter.
DD looks at his/her watch and heaves a sigh of relief: Time’s up. Thanks. And don’t forget to pick up a copy of the press release on chicken farms in Iraq.
Protesters Will Not End Occupation of “Tahrir Square” in DC.
Sunday’s White House witness included Ray (see video link in the article below) reciting a Russian poem, Paying Attention to Horrors of War,” with its poignant portrayal of the “sacred, guileless tears” of mother of the fallen.
The Moral Imperative of Activism
Ray quotes Dan Berrigan’s reflection on the risks and ridicule, after using homemade napalm to burn draft cards at Catonsville, Maryland, May 1968:
“The act was let go, its truth and goodness were entrusted to the four winds. Indeed, good consequences were of small matter to me, compared with the integrity of the action, the need responded to, the spirits lifted. …”