An open letter to The
Wichita Eagle:
I
read with disgust the article "How
Wichitans fight in Combat from here." The whole article makes a
hero out of a woman who sits in a nice safe room and kills people she never met
in person thousands of miles away. Heroic! considering how easy our technology
has made war these days it seems more cowardly to me. Our troops no longer have
to meet the enemy on a battle field, we
just push a button and they are gone.
The
article uses clever words like "the neutralizing of 92 high value individuals."
I think the more common word is either to kill or murder.
We
are talking about a fight in someone else's country where people have lost
their nation, sovereignty and their national pride. Some of those combatants
are not just Taliban. Some people there have joined in the Taliban's fight
because they want the foreigners to leave. That especially goes for the many
factions of resistance in Iraq
and other parts of the world where this country feels free to impose our
standards on them against their will. We impose democratic puppet regimes that
ignore these people's own dynamic interest, culture and national needs.
Not
only is their resistance justified, these machines kill members of their
families, including young children and innocent civilians who happen to be there
at the time these bombers go off.
I
can't understand how a country that claims to be for "freedom and
democracy" and a "beacon of hope in the world" can rely on technology
that makes a button pushing soldier judge, jury and executioner. We are doing
all of this because we have the ability to do it—Not because there is any moral
grounds for it. It has never been justified to take over someone else's country
just because it serves our needs.
I'm
not alone in this complaint. A lot of people in Wichita are concerned about the use of
unmanned drones to kill people.
Steve Otto
Film: National Bird
Friday, March 3, 7:00 - 8:45 pm
Friday, March 3, 7:00 - 8:45 pm
At the Peace and Social Justice Center
1407
N. Topeka
Wichita, KS
National
Bird is a 2016 documentary film directed by Sonia Kennebeck with executive
producers Wim Wenders and Errol Morris. It was shown at the Tribeca Film
Festival and the Berlin Film Festival, and it was reviewed in Variety and The
Guardian. It will show on PBS Independent Lens on May 1, 2017.
National Bird follows the dramatic journey of insiders who are determined to break the silence around one of the most controversial issues of our time: The secret US drone war. The film gives rare insight into the American drone program through the eyes of veterans and survivors. Plagued by guilt over the killing of faceless people in foreign countries and suffering from PTSD, the veterans decide to speak out publicly, despite the possible consequences.
National Bird follows the dramatic journey of insiders who are determined to break the silence around one of the most controversial issues of our time: The secret US drone war. The film gives rare insight into the American drone program through the eyes of veterans and survivors. Plagued by guilt over the killing of faceless people in foreign countries and suffering from PTSD, the veterans decide to speak out publicly, despite the possible consequences.
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