The Guardian: I worked on the US drone program. The public should know what really goes on [View all]

Heather Linebaugh theguardian.com, Sunday 29 December 2013 07.30 EST



An Elbit Systems Hermes 450 drone. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images


Whenever I read comments by politicians defending the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Predator and Reaper program – aka drones – I wish I could ask them some questions. I'd start with "how many women and children have you seen incinerated by a Hellfire missile?" and "How many men have you seen crawl across a field, trying to make it to the nearest compound for help while bleeding out from severed legs?" Or even more pointedly, "how many soldiers have you seen die on the side of a road in Afghanistan because our ever-so-accurate UAV's [unmanned aerial vehicle] were unable to detect an IED [improvised explosive device] that awaited their convoy?"

Few of these politicians who so brazenly proclaim the benefits of drones have a real clue of what actually goes on. I, on the other hand, have seen these awful sights first-hand.

I knew the names of some of the young soldiers I saw bleed to death on the side of a road. I watched dozens of military-aged males die in Afghanistan, in empty fields, along riversides, and some right outside the compound where their family was waiting for them to return home from mosque.

The US and British militaries insist that this is such an expert program, but it's curious that they feel the need to deliver faulty information, few or no statistics about civilian deaths and twisted technology reports on the capabilities of our UAV's. These specific incidents are not isolated, and the civilian casualty rate has not changed, despite what our defense representatives might like to tell us...more

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/29/drones-us-military

There's no statute of limitations on murder.