Dramatic civilian losses to missiles fired from drones in Yemen and Pakistan are driving a continuing story about how best the world should manage their usage. The United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution.
A stunning drone missile attack on a Yemen wedding party that missed a mid-level terrorist but killed 15 civilians is challenging Obama to implement his promise that civilians will not be attacked if at all possible. Apparently this man's death was worth 15 civilian lives.
Pakistani resistance is building, and an ongoing demonstration has been occasionally blocking the road through the Khyber Pass that our returning troops are using to bring munitions home. The US Secretary of Defense told the Pakistan leader that he must make this resistance to drone killings by those who are even of another political party and totally not under his control, stop, or American aid to Pakistan would be suspended.
Military drones are becoming the norm. Every country will soon have them.
New story lines...
The rules of war are not the reality:
Not being able to see whether a man walking across a field is carrying a gun or a shovel - that is the reality. Seeing a man with both legs blown off trying to crawl across a field to safety is the reality.
12/26/13 "A US drone fired two missiles on a militant compound, killing at least three suspected insurgents," a senior security official told AFP.
"The identities of those killed in the strike were not immediately known but officials suspect that they were of Afghan origin."
"Suspected insurgents" says it all. We didn't know who they were. We suspected they came from Afghanistan. We didn't know their affiliation. Just suspected that they were insurgents because we suspected they came from Afghanistan. Because we suspected them, we killed them.
12/26/31 "... initial reports gathered from their agents in the field suggested the slain men were Arabs..." Arabs... so we killed them. They fit the profile.They were not locals.
12/26/13 "... the bodies were charred beyond recognition. And we don't know who they were...
12/29/13 "former U.S. Air Force analyst Heather Linebaugh, who has seen innocent women and children incinerated by Hellfire missiles and soldiers killed because of drone failures, writes"
A wedding party is assassinated:
12/12/13 Missiles fired by a U.S. drone slammed into a convoy of vehicles traveling to a wedding party in central Yemen on Thursday, killing at least 13 people, Yemeni security officials said today.
12/12/13 "Fifteen people were killed and five more were wounded, according to Reuters. The initial press accounts indicate that all of those killed were civilians."
12/12/13 "At least 15 people are dead and five more were injured after an apparent U.S. drone strike missed its target and struck a wedding convoy in Yemen, according to reports from local officials... The intended target was a convoy of vehicles containing al-Qaida operatives, the officials said."
12/13/13 Drone strike in Yemen killed 17, mostly civilians: "Two of the dead whose names were released -- Saleh al-Tays and Abdullah al-Tays -- had figured in the past on Yemeni government lists of wanted Al-Qaeda suspects. But most of those killed were civilian members of the Al-Tays and Al-Ameri clans headed to the wedding, according to the security official."
| 12/13/13 “The Americans came and told us, ‘You are sheltering the Taliban,’ and I told the Americans ‘Come inside and see for yourself, you are killing women and children,”‘ Jalil said. “After they saw that all the dead were civilians, they gave us permission to bury the bodies.” |
12/13/13 Al Qaeda Gains Sympathy In Yemen As US Drone Strikes Wedding Party
Asked if more people joined al Qaeda in the wake of attacks that killed civilians, Mohsen said: "Definitely. And even those who don't join, now sympathize with al Qaeda because of these strikes, these violations. Any American they see, they exact revenge, even if it's a civilian."
12/13/13 It's not the first time such a tragedy has struck the region. Late last year, a drone strike killed 12 villagers in a similar procession.
12/14/13 Yemen tribe demands apology for civilian drone deaths
12/15/13 Yemen’s parliament on Sunday called for a stop to drone attacks in a symbolic vote that reflected growing public anxiety about Washington’s use of the unmanned aircraft to combat al Qaeda in the impoverished country.
12/18/13 "I wonder how “near-certainty” the President was on Friday, December 13th, when a U.S. drone strike targeted a wedding convoy in Yemen’s al-Baitha province, killing 14 and injuring 22."
"Imagine gathering for a quaint wedding in Northern Virginia on a picturesque farm, all of your loved ones gathered in celebration, only to have your wedding party slaughtered by a drone from Pakistan. We react with hysteria when a lone gunman starts shooting in a public place. Imagine our vitriolic response to repeated attacks on weddings by foreign enemies."
"Some of the things his follow-on reporters missed: bloodied children’s shoes and skirts, bloodied school books, the scalp of a woman with braided grey hair, butter toffees in red wrappers, wedding decorations."
12/19/13 "Images from local media surfaced last week on Facebook and in other social media showing what were described as the graphic consequences of a drone-fired missile strike on a convoy that was part of a wedding party in a remote area of Yemen."
12/20/13 "... have said the target of a deadly drone strike that hit a wedding convoy and killed 15 people in Yemen earlier this month was a mid-level al-Qaeda leader. ... Two US and one Yemeni official, speaking to Associated Press news agency on condition of anonymity on Friday, said that Shawqi Ali Ahmad al-Badani was wounded and escaped the December 12 air strike.
The officials described al-Badani as the leader behind a bomb plot that briefly closed 19 US diplomatic posts across Africa and the Middle East earlier this year."
So in order to kill a fellow who put together a bomb plot that never set off a bomb, we killed 15 nearby civilians and wounded 22 more. Our target was only wounded, and survives to frighten us again someday with another threatened bomb plot.
12/27/13 Fatal error in ‘wedding party’ drone strike prompts UN condemnation
Protests in Pakistan:
11/29/13 "Oil tanker companies, which have been unable to use the KP route into Afghanistan, are now threatening to “cut off” KP’s shipments if the demonstrations against the drones don’t end within 72 hours." That is to say, they threaten to honor the picket line.
12/08/13 Sit-ins against NATO supply lines to continue
12/10/13 ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif told Pentagon chief Chuck Hagel on Monday that US drone strikes were "counter-productive" as Washington pushed for supply routes to Afghanistan to be kept open.
12/12/13 U.S. Secretary of Defense Hagel threatens to cut $1.6 bln in Pakistan aid because drone protests are blocking NATO convoys...
12/09/13 "It is not lost on the Pakistanis, either, that the drone protests are a direct result of the US twice reneging on promises to end the strikes, once assassinating a Taliban leader less than 24 hours before the peace talks, then attacking a religious school on the planned first day of protests, adding a lot of fuel to the fire."
12/21/13 The Pakistan National Assembly unanimously asks the US to stop drone attacks in the tribal areas.
12/26/13 The Khyber Pass supply route to Afghanistan is still blocked by anti-drone protests
12/28/13 Foreign Office spokesperson Tasnim Aslam addressing weekly briefing strongly condemned Wednesday’s drone strike by the United States in Miran Shah and said these should be stopped. She said these strikes are violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
The UN General Assembly votes:
12/18/13 The UN General Assembly passed a resolution on Dec 18 2013 calling on states using drone strikes as a counter-terrorism measure to comply with their obligations under international law and the UN Charter.
12/20/13 It is the first that the General Assembly has spoken out on the use of armed drones - a key but controversial component of the US war against terrorism, including against targets in Pakistan. In this regard, the Assembly underscored the "urgent and imperative" need for an agreement among member states on legal questions about drone operations.
12/20/13 Pakistan UN Ambassador Masood Khan said on Friday that US drone strikes on Pakistani territory not only violate the country's sovereignty and territorial integrity, but also international law.
12/24/13 UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Monday reaffirmed his stand that the use of remotely controlled aircraft must be regulated and controlled by the terms of international law.
12/26/13 U.N. experts urge U.S., Yemen to explain erroneous drone strikes
Afghan drone missile attacks may kill any continuing security agreement:
11/30/2013 Afghan anger over one such raid last week led Mr. Karzai to insist on a ban, and he has said he will not sign the long-term security agreement with the United States until such operations are definitively over.
Drones around the world:
12/03/13 The UN mission in Democratic Republic of Congo has started to deploy unarmed surveillance drones to monitor rebel activity near the forested borders with Rwanda and Uganda.
12/07/13 Drone captures unique aerial video of enormous protest in Thailand
... Watch the video!
12/17/13 Jonathan launches first Nigerian built drone
12/18/13 First ever Royal Navy drone launched in £30million mission to stop Somali pirates
12/18/13 Lebanese say Israeli drone violated southern airspace
Border patrol may be drones' eventual role in the universe.
Drones in Africa are flown from Germany:
12/11/13 Secret U.S. drone bases in Germany revealed "There’s no war in Germany. But where the U.S. army and intelligence agencies once protected the West during the Cold War, they now lead a worldwide secret war." The U.S. drone war in Africa is controlled from U.S. bases in Germany.
Every country will have its drones:
Offloading the task of flying the drones and targeting the victims to the host country solves a lot of political problems: In Iraq, drones will be locally managed.
New and wonderful consumer uses for drones:
12/04/13 "Amazon PrimeAire" - delivery of products by quadracopter drone - is near at hand. By 2015, customers will be able to order a used book from Amazon and then just open the window. A strange bird will fly in and deposit the book on the table. A Forbes columnist thinks it will work.
Watch the drone deliver a package!
12/20/13 The "Mistletoe Drone" hangs its mistletoe in the air above potential lovers until they kiss:
Mistletoe Drone Is A Drone Everyone Could Support
12/25/13 The "Parrot AR.Drone 2.0 Elite Edition" is a stocking-stuffer with wings...
12/22/13 Ohio Schools are making plans to train students in the soon-to-be-booming drone industry.
The war on drones:
Drones are the new bulls-eye. A splendid moving target.
12/06/13 A Zombie Drone That Hunts, Controls, and Kills Other Drones. Vicious. Then it sucks their electricity...
"How fun would it be to take over drones, carrying Amazon packages... or take over any other drones and make them my little zombie drones," Kamkar asked rhetorically in a blog post published Monday. "Awesome."
12/12/13 Welcome to HEL: U.S Army developing drone-killing laser weapon
12/14/13 "Taliban militants claim they have shot down a US drone in southeastern Afghanistan, Press TV reports."
12/22/13 Naming the victims: Emran Feroz is about to start up a website listing the names of every single person killed by a drone strike anywhere in the world.
Judgement:
12/03/13 "U.S. drone attacks in Afghanistan, Pakistan and other countries may be militarily effective, but they are killing innocent civilians in a way that is obscene and immoral. I’m afraid that ignoring this ugly fact makes Americans complicit in murder."
Views of the future:
12/12/13 Here is a truly great sci fi video of images taken by drone about a possible drone-ish police state that may be here tomorrow. It's a wonderful creation, and shows how art can enrich a discussion about man's future. It left me feeling good:
Our Drone-Controlled Future Looks Like A Video Game
12/12/13 No warrant needed! Here are the FBI's internal guidelines for warrantless drone surveillance,
12/24/13 Drone strikes are the new normal You just get used to it...
12/14/13 (according to this graph) drone strikes in 2013 were greatly reduced No big deal...
12/13/13 Galloping drone warhorses. A nightmare scenario. Pleasant dreams.
May you be happy and free from suffering!
