The Afghanistan War Comes Home to Philadelphia

[rug]

The Drones of Willow Grove

May 27, 2013
by DAVE LINDORFF

Maple Glen War Zone

Although I have been a journalist now for 40 years, I have, by design, never sought an assignment as a war correspondent. The idea of dodging enemy bullets, avoiding mines, and of course “friendly” fire, has never appealed to me. And yet, this week I find that I am now a war correspondent in a combat zone in spite of myself.

Yesterday I learned, courtesy of my congressional representative, Republican Pat Meehan, that my neighborhood, the Upper Dublin and Horsham area of Montgomery County, PA, is being made into a front-line battle zone in the Afghanistan War.

Not that Rep. Meehan put it that way. No. His announcement was that Montgomery County was going to get 250 new jobs thanks to a decision by the Pentagon to set up a new piloting facility for Reaper drones at the currently mothballed Willow Grove Naval Air Station. This new drone piloting facility, like the ones in Nevada and upstate New York, will be flying drones not locally using the Willow Grove facility’s huge airfield, but in Afghanistan, Pakistan and wherever else they’re fighting the so-called War on Terror.

With this decision, the war has literally come home. Two miles from my house, to be exact.

http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/05/27/the-afghanistan-war-comes-home-to-philadelphia/

[FirstLight]

1. ...

sickening...and who's to say those drones won't be 'tested' in their hometown?

[In_The_Wind]

2. Wonderful.

[sarisataka]

3. And if my google map is accurate

there is now a legitimate military target across the street from Regal Warrington Crossing Stadium 22 & Imax.

The article talks about the hair splitting the lawyers go on about what is and is not a target. Having been in combat, I could find no fault with an enemy who selects this base as a target for some form of attack. As we have seen, collateral damage easily spreads beyond the intended target and is an unfortunate circumstance in war.

Idiots