CHALLENGING DRONOTOPIA - War Is A Crime .org

high potential of drone accidents as new models are developed. This problem will
magnify in the United States as more and more drones enter U.S. airspace.
8. There is the potential also for “enemies” to capture drones electronically. This is
particularly frightening given the plans of the United States to develop a drone
bomber that can carry nuclear weapons.
9. Drones are a disproportionate use of force against opponents armed with much
less sophisticated and powerful weapons.
10. Armed drones and surveillance drones are used primarily against people who are
struggling for self-determination in low-income countries or regions that have a
history of repression and gross exploitation.
11. Fifty nations now have drone technology, and it is certain that drones will be used
against the United States. Given the relative newness of drone technology, now is
the time to ban the use of drones for attack and surveillance.
12. Drones have become the cutting edge of United States foreign policy, a policy
that arguably has as its primary goal the maximization of profits for transnational
corporations. This condition has existed since the founding of the nation and was
powerfully explained by Marine General Smedley Butler in 1935 in his book War
is a Racket; he described himself in the military as “a high class muscle man for
Big Business.”
Martin Luther King Jr. said in his prophetic 1967 speech “Beyond Viet Nam”:
“This need to maintain social stability for our investments accounts for the
counterrevolutionary action of American forces in Guatemala. It tells why
American helicopters are being used against guerrillas in Cambodia and why
American napalm and Green Beret forces have already been active against rebels
In Peru…Increasingly, by choice of by accident, this is the role our nation has
taken, the role of those who make peaceful revolution impossible by refusing to
give up the privileges and pleasures that come from the immense profits of
overseas investments.”
Examples of drone use in support of transnational goals include Afghanistan,
where secure pipeline and electrical line routes and access to mineral deposits are
sought, and Yemen, where the United States is fighting a war to suppress a
movement that is seen threatening by those now controlling Saudi Arabian oil.
The drones, engendering a false sense of United States military superiority, not
only increase the amount of gross human suffering but postpone the time when
transnational corporations must reach equitable agreements for resources. Such
agreements have greater stability and economic predictability and may
incorporate national wishes to conserve national resources, which have positive
48