Atrocities Can Be Expensive

The brief video at the beginning of this post is horrifying but worthy of 15 seconds of your time.

Capt. Richard Koll, left, and Airman First Class Mike Eulo monitored a drone aircraft after launching it in Iraq. Credit U.S. Air Force/Master Sgt. Steve Horton

There’s thousands, maybe millions of them, out there. Some of them, invisible to you, are soaring around right now, doing their dirty business—spying and killing. And thousands more are still waiting to be set free to wreak death and destruction on babies, children, and adults who have the misfortune of being somewhere government operatives have decided to target.

Question: What allows the US drone program to get away with murder?

Answer: the usual thing. Tom Greening says it well:

PROFITEER

It¹s true I am a profiteer
from wars, and yes I know you sneer
at my crass immorality
that helps me live in luxury.
I feel no need to be defensive‹
atrocities can be expensive.
I revel in ill-gotten gains
from helping bad guys purchase planes,
and drones and bombs and other stuff‹
they never seem to get enough.
I must the politicians thank
for all the dirty cash I bank.

Tom Greening

Neither the death and destruction nor the dirty cash are featured in the corporate media but they are real enough.

I know your days are full of activities, and it is probably impossible to do all the things you should do, but if your government is going to do things in your names, things that are inhuman and violate international human rights, you might find it worthwhile to stroll a bit down the avenues where you can find some information—for example,  droneswatch.org  and  nodronesnetwork.blogspot.com.

For the military industrial complex, drone warfare is a great way to terrorize civilians in an area they want to control without stirring up the people back home and with a minimum of American casualties, but even drone operators, presumably safely behind their computers, can suffer from participating in murder.

Let’s get stirred up over the latest killing technology and welcome efforts to get more hard facts from the government about their missions of death.

Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology