My
name is Victor Merrill.
Well,
that’s not my real name, but it will have to do.
I
was once an Airman First Class in the U.S. Air Force. I last served
as what is commonly called a drone
pilot
in a trailer at a military base in the western part of America.
As
part of a two-man team, my job was to blow things up and to kill
people with Hellfire missiles at a cost of $110,000 a copy.
Strange,
but $110,000 is just about twice what my college debt is.
It’s
baffling how our spendthrift government spends billions and billions
of dollars a day blowing things up and killing people while our
country rots from the inside out. But what do I know?
After
leaving the Air Force and becoming a Buddhist, I began to worry about
the karma of America and its people.
But
more than that, I worry about how what I’ve done in a little
trailer in the desert will affect my future existence.
At
the heart of my anxiety were three concepts I heard a lot in the Air
Force:
national
security,
acceptable
collateral damage,
and
Signature Strikes.
The
Signature Strike Program begin back in the baby Bush era and then
greatly expanded during the Obama administration.
This
program has always been the ultimate in profiling. By a drone’s
monitoring of a suspect’s behavior, location, and the mood of
someone high on the “shoot-to-kill-pyramid,” it is determined
whether or not to kill a man, woman, or child no matter the
collateral damages.
Collateral
damages are the other people who die when we kill a target who fits
some poorly defined signature profile all done, of course, in the
interests of our national security.
The
truth of the matter is that for every person we kill, or for every
building we blow up, our nation becomes less secure.
After
operating for a while as a drone pilot
(assassin-executioner-murderer-killer without a judge or jury) I went
to my sergeant with my concerns.
“Listen
fuck-face,” he yelled, “you’re savings lives every time you fry
one of those mother-fuckers.”
It
was the ultimate lie long used to account for the atomic bombing of
Japan (after she was defeated), the fire-bombing of German cities
(after she was defeated), and the killing of thousands of civilians
by American soldiers, snipers, and pilots.
After
long consideration, I’ve come to the conclusion there are three
types of people who buy this saving
lives lie:
psychopaths, the extremely ignorant, and the congenitally stupid.
It
all finally got to me toward the end of one of my twelve-hour shifts.
For hours my video feed showed me what looked like a guy working on
or riding a motorcycle. Suddenly, I was ordered to blow him away
in other words waste a $110,000 missile on one guy.
“Why?”
I wanted to know.
“He’s
gotta be a bad guy if he owns a motorcycle,” I heard from my audio
feed.
I
stalled for time, curious as to just what this guy was up to. He soon
stopped at a nasty rubble-filled lot between two bombed-out
buildings. Kids were there who looked like they were playing soccer.
The
guy joined them. Then it looked like he was coaching them.
“Blow
his ass away,” came from my audio feed. “No wait! He’s back on
his motorcycle … follow him.”
I
was relieved not to have killed him and maybe lots of children but
was worried about where he was going and what “acceptable”
collateral damage I might cause.
My
worries were well founded. The guy drove his motorcycle to a church.
It looked like a funeral service was about to take place.
The
guy joined the others, who were slowly walking toward the church
door. But then he did something odd. He kneeled at the door and dug
into his coat pocket.
I
centered and magnified the picture on my video feed on what was at
the door. It was a dog with what looked like five or six nursing
puppies.
The
guy the bad guy (according to the Signature
Strike Program) gave
the old mother dog a treat.
“FIRE
… FIRE,” someone from atop of the command pyramid screamed into
my ears.
On
the drive home to my wife and baby, I thought about the injustices of
our world. Never was I more depressed.
Wanting
some music, I turned on my car’s radio. Instead of music I heard
part of President Obama’s speech justifying our drone killings.
… And
before any strike is taken there must be near-certainty that no
civilians will be killed …
“What
about mother dogs and their puppies … you … you … LYING
SON-OF-A BITCH?”
Note:
The foregoing
is not an actual testimonial. It is an account of what the author
believes to be going on with our drone wars.
J.
Speer-Williams
Jsw4@mac.com |