Drones have become part of the military apparatus and arsenal. They are fearsome in what damage they cause and inflict - often on many civilians totally uninvolved in an military action - but the effect on the operators of these insidious weapons cannot be underestimated either.
In this op-ed piece "Confessions of a drone veteran: Why using them is more dangerous than the government is telling you" on Salon, a drone operator effectively reveals all about drones and their operation.
"The White House sells drones strikes as legal, ethical and targeted to protect our military and innocent civilians from harm. These are questionable claims, made more dubious by the administration’s selectively leaking details of the drone program to assuage the public when reports arise of flawed legal reasoning, mistaken strikes or vastly underestimated civilian deaths.
CIA director John O. Brennan also told the American public that drones “can be a wise choice because they dramatically reduce the danger to U.S. personnel, even eliminating the danger altogether.” Director Brennan is wrong.
I know because I am a veteran of the drone program. I served as an Air Force imagery analyst. What I know of drone warfare is that it has dangerous, sometimes devastating, consequences for too many service members participating in the program.
As the Obama administration increased its reliance on the drone program, the pressure came from the top to increase missions and strikes. We were encouraged to fly missions – at great taxpayer expense – even when there was nothing of consequence to see, no targets to strike and no American ground forces to protect. Performance evaluations highlighted an airman’s number of “enemy kills.” I asked, “Why does it matter how many people we killed?” Is that truly the definition of success – death? I joined the Air Force to save lives, not take them."
In this op-ed piece "Confessions of a drone veteran: Why using them is more dangerous than the government is telling you" on Salon, a drone operator effectively reveals all about drones and their operation.
"The White House sells drones strikes as legal, ethical and targeted to protect our military and innocent civilians from harm. These are questionable claims, made more dubious by the administration’s selectively leaking details of the drone program to assuage the public when reports arise of flawed legal reasoning, mistaken strikes or vastly underestimated civilian deaths.
CIA director John O. Brennan also told the American public that drones “can be a wise choice because they dramatically reduce the danger to U.S. personnel, even eliminating the danger altogether.” Director Brennan is wrong.
I know because I am a veteran of the drone program. I served as an Air Force imagery analyst. What I know of drone warfare is that it has dangerous, sometimes devastating, consequences for too many service members participating in the program.
As the Obama administration increased its reliance on the drone program, the pressure came from the top to increase missions and strikes. We were encouraged to fly missions – at great taxpayer expense – even when there was nothing of consequence to see, no targets to strike and no American ground forces to protect. Performance evaluations highlighted an airman’s number of “enemy kills.” I asked, “Why does it matter how many people we killed?” Is that truly the definition of success – death? I joined the Air Force to save lives, not take them."
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