THE NO DRONES EXPLOSIONby Joan Wile, author,
Grandmothers Against the War: Getting Off Our Fannies and Standing
Up For Peace (Citadel
Press)
Rockefeller Center No-Drone rally
April 3, 2013
I got an idea a few weeks ago --once in a while I
would read about these things called drones. From what I could gather from the
sparsity of information about them, they seemed to me to be immoral and
vicious. Not only did it appear that they were very dangerous for people all
over the world but it occurred to me that eventually they would prove to be very
dangerous to us in the U.S, too. After all, many countries have the technology
already, and some of them might launch them on us. Although I had quit anti-war
activism in late 2012, to which I had devoted myself for nine years since 2003,
I decided to come out of retirement and have a rally opposing these
indiscriminately-deployed nasty weapons. I settled on Wednesday, April 3. It
was the kick-off event to what is billed as April Days of Action, which is
planning anti-drone events all over the U.S. throughout April.
My timing turned out to be good, although I had no
awareness at the time that there was a fast-building anti-drone sensibility
developing among the public. But, as I began to reach out to people I knew in
the anti-war movement, it became apparent that lots of other people were
outraged about these killer machines, too. There was suddenly a lot of
discussion in the media and demonstrations started to be scheduled all over the
country.
I didn't know much about drones at all, but I was
referred to some excellent sources of information, among them KnowDrones (knowdrones.com), an
online publication full of drone data, and the Granny Peace Brigade, which has a
lot of information on their website (grannypeacebrigade.org).
I became more and more horror-struck as I learned
that many innocent people died from our Predator drones when so-called targeted
killings turned out to be not so well-targeted -- it is estimated that over
3,000 non-combatant civilians have been killed by our killer drones, and many
more injured. These are not exact figures, of course, as drones are exploded in
very remote places in such countries as Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Afghanistan
where there are no forensic experts to determine how many bodies were
disintegrated in a hit.
This is totally unacceptable, but I learned of
other negatives of our drone policy. Although some small drones are used for
surveillance, which can be useful in natural disasters, there are more and more
plans afoot to use them to spy on us, turning us into more of a police state
than we've already become.
Beyond these dreadful evils, though, is the sheer
immorality of the drones. Our Constitution stipulates that nobody can be
declared guilty unless it is proven so in a court of law. And yet, here we are,
the supposed beacon of democracy, acting as accuser, judge, jury and executioner
without a trial regarding people we are not officially at war
with.
Our rally, in Rockefeller Center, was quite a
success. We billed it as a "granny" event, inasmuch as several peace granny
groups were there. However, many non-grannies were there, also -- members of
the War Resisters League, World Can't Wait, Military Families Speak Out,
Veterans for Peace, various Peace Action groups, and others. In all, there were
probably at least 60 persons assembled on Fifth Avenue in front of Rockefeller
Plaza.
Our wonderful
speakers were Col. Ann Wright, who famously retired from the Diplomatic Corps
the minute we attacked Iraq and has spent the intervening years traveling all
over the world urging peace; Nick Mottern, journalist and Editor of KnowDrones;
Bill Gilson, President of Veterans for Peace local Chapter 34. and Debra Sweet,
Director of World Can't Wait.
A highlight was when the Granny Peace Brigade, in unison, talked of their Resolution (in progress) which they plan to present to the New York City Council urging that the City be a drone-free zone. Another highlight was when the Raging Grannies sang some of their original anti-drone songs.
A highlight was when the Granny Peace Brigade, in unison, talked of their Resolution (in progress) which they plan to present to the New York City Council urging that the City be a drone-free zone. Another highlight was when the Raging Grannies sang some of their original anti-drone songs.
Granny
Peace Brigade reciting at Rockefeller Plaza anti-drone rally April 3, 2014
Although we didn't have any mainstream media, we
had a lot of world-wide coverage from what you might call Main Street Media --
Radio Free Europe, Reuters, Russian RT, and lots more. The story traveled all
over the globe, and we are pleased that it was especially prevalent in the
Middle East.
Says Nick Mottern, "These protests will not go
away. We will have a continual campaign from now on until our government
confronts this issue and drastically alters its drone policy."
the drone war
grandmothers for peace international
joan wile