Drone attacks will escalate Libya war

[Hannah Bell]

President Obama's authorisation of the use of missile-armed drones is a further escalation of the Libya conflict that is sure to result in yet more civilian casualties. The evidence is overwhelming that drone usage in Pakistan, Afghanistan and elsewhere massively increases "collateral damage". On 6 May 2002 a drone killed 10 Afghan civilians in a car convoy. On 5 January 2006 a drone targeting al-Qaida's Ayman al-Zawahiri blew up a house in Pakistan. He wasn't there and eight civilians were killed. A week later a Predator ordered into action from CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, destroyed three houses in Demadola, Pakistan, killing 22 civilians, including five women and five children.

On 19 May 2009 a drone attacked homes of villagers in North Waziristan thought to be aiding insurgents, killing 14 women and children. On 2 December 2010, Conflict Monitoring Centre in Islamabad issued a report charging that the US was deliberately ignoring Pakistani civilian deaths (2,043 over five years) caused by drones. On 23 January 2011, after 13 more civilians were killed, 2,000 tribesmen in North Waziristan held a protest against drone missile strikes.

In May 2010 Philip Alston, UN special representative on extrajudicial executions, highlighted the prevalence of a "PlayStation" mentality among drone operators in the US, in effect playing video games with distant and depersonalised targets. Alston, a professor of law at New York University, said: "I'm particularly concerned that the US asserts an ever-expanding entitlement to target individuals across the globe ... an ill-defined licence to kill without accountability."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/23/drone-attacks-escalate-libya-war


freedom! freedom!

what a joke.

[Hannah Bell]

1. kicking for freedom(TM)

[JohnyCanuck]

2. Drone attacks will escalate Libya war

Maybe that's what was intended.

[Hannah Bell]

3. that makes about as much sense as anything else about this stupid war

[The_Casual_Observer]

4. WE have drones & McCan't over there now how much more fucked up

could it possibly get? Obama will figure out some other way to stumble his way into something worse I imagine.

[sabrina 1]

5. Those weapons really are evil and this is so true:

the prevalence of a "PlayStation" mentality among drone operators in the US, in effect playing video games with distant and depersonalised targets.

It's sick, and to think we elected someone who, we thought, would be better than Bush and would have compassion for people, especially children who seem to be the biggest targets of these cruel weapons.

The US is acting like an angry, wounded animal, striking out with no concern for who gets hurt.

As for those who operate these drones, it IS like playing a video game. I do not know how they can sleep at night because they absolutely must know they are killing innocent people.

It is shameful.

[lib2DaBone]

6. The American people are OK with innocent women and children being killed by drones..

America is also OK with military torture and secret CIA prisons.

What has happened to this country?

Where's all these "values" Conservatives are so proud to squak about?

[Gravel Democrat]

7. ^^^

one angry fucking donkey