CHALLENGING DRONOTOPIA - War Is A Crime .org

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Presenting at Random Row Books, Charlottesville, VA. Photo by George Guerci By 7:30, about 50 people had gathered, and I began my presentation, which lasted for about 20 minutes, leaving nearly an hour for Q & A. This was a group that I assumed would have considerable information about drones, in part because of the work in Charlottesville on militarism by David Swanson, who manages www.WarIsACrime.org and is the author of War is a Lie and other books. Despite this, there were questions that demonstrated ignorance of basic facts about drones that had become familiar as we travelled. I realized again, as I have over and over, how little information is commonly held about drones, even as their use and development soars. I also was struck, again, by how important it is to be able to talk to people face to face about a complex subject and to have the opportunity to respond to questions. A commonly asked question that we got at Random Row is: How is a drone any different from a fighter plane killing someone? These are responses that we have given: 24
- Drones are able to follow individual movements of individuals and groups for hours on end. Because of this monitoring, drones are able to kill when a fighter plane might not because of the normal jets’ relatively limited time over the target area and its speed. The drone makes killing easier, too easy, leading to routine violations of the section of international law that requires judicial findings of guilt before sentences are imposed. Of course there is the question of whether the US has the right to impose any penalty in another nation. - Attacks by piloted jet aircraft against individuals in sovereign nations are likely to be viewed as a type of armed aggression that is more politically and legally unacceptable objectionable than drone attacks. At this point, drones are flying in gray area of international law, which has not kept up with drone technology with respect to drone killing, terror generated by drone over-flights or violation of personal and group privacy. - Drones enable killing without risk to the lives of pilots and at a somewhat less dollar cost than normal jet aircraft, thus giving the illusion of less political risk to politicians wishing to undertake sustained drone wars and drone intimidation. As drone wars develop, the risks it generates will be more and more apparent. I think perhaps that learning can best be done through questions and answers because the question lays out the pathway of a person’s thinking that one has walk back down to deliver new ideas. This of course helps those listening to follow the same paths. Maybe this is obvious, but it raises a question about our current heavy reliance on the internet for political communication. One of those in the Random Row audience was a long-time friend and colleague of mine, Carroll Houle, a former Maryknoll priest who now lives in Charlottesville. He and I worked together at Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers, and we travelled to Africa together several times between 1985 and 1990 as part of our work on the Africa Peace Tour, an ecumenical project to provide information to the US public on apartheid and US military involvement in Africa. Carroll has done a lot of work to help young people, particularly in Kenya, where he lived many years for Maryknoll. In the Q&A Carroll suggested that we describe the drone war, as well as other current wars, as war on children. The Medact report, mentioned earlier, speaks to the impact of drones on women and children: “Women are disproportionately affected by drones. What little control they have over their lives is further eroded by a weapon they know could strike at any time. Their lives and those of the children they try to protect are under constant threat. While men can sublimate their grief and anger to some degree by becoming fighters – one of the terrible consequences of drone warfare – women have no such outlet. And if their menfolk are 25
Page 1 and 2: CHALLENGING DRONOTOPIA A report of
Page 3 and 4: Drone spending is growing in the US
Page 5 and 6: drone replicas to inject anti-war a
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Page 9 and 10: Daytonians protest drone-maker cont
Page 11 and 12: and Pakistan are not curbing attack
Page 13 and 14: Two days after this conversation, I
Page 15 and 16: Nick Mottern talks with Ralph Dull
Page 17 and 18: 2. Sinclair Community College - 25,
Page 19 and 20: Nick Mottern speaks at Columbus (Oh
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Page 23: Charlottesville and Simple Living O
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Page 29 and 30: After our presentation, we took the
Page 31 and 32: DAWN (Dayton Against War Now) will
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Page 35 and 36: empathy. This manipulation of a pop
Page 37 and 38: in war, are so willing to ignore th
Page 39 and 40: Another overlay might be a map show
Page 41 and 42: Jane Kurinsky Peter Lems Max Obusze
Page 43 and 44: ATTACHMENT A - TURNER LETTER Septem
Page 45 and 46: ATTACHMENT A to Turner letter. 1. S
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Page 49 and 50: environmental impacts. Thus drones
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Page 53 and 54: AMERICAN LEGACY by Steve Fryburg ww
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Page 57 and 58: ATTACHMENT C - RECRUITMENT CONSIDER
Page 59 and 60: (4) Searchers What's our single bes
Page 61 and 62: "Framing drone killing and drone sp
Page 63 and 64: (I must note that what we have been

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