This is a subject that I have thought about a lot since I first saw a segment on "60 Minutes" about the flying of drone planes in war last year and in the New York Times last week. I've tried to weigh the pros
and cons.
After reading any number of articles on it from all different angles, I'm convinced that drone warfare is "evil" and engenders everything
that is immoral about war.
The "60 Minutes" segment portrayed a drone pilot who lives and works from Las Vegas. He goes to work each morning in a starched and pressed
uniform, sits at a computer monitor all day flying his drones, makes decisions on who to kill and where, leaves at 5 p.m., goes home to his wife and
young children, and pictures himself as just another hard-working and patriotic American. He also discussed the fact that he was very active in
his local church.
I find stories like this not only extremely troubling but also fascinating from a psychological standpoint.
How can someone compartmentalize their morality in such a complete way?
How can an active Christian and family person totally divorce himself from his reality when he picks up his
computer joystick?
Are those who can do this mentally ill?
Are those puppeteers in the Pentagon who manage this program sanctioned war criminals?
Are those of us who sit back and allow this to happen complicit and justifiably culpable?
These drones are notoriously inaccurate resulting in hundreds if not thousands of innocent deaths. The military glibly call these men, women,
and children "collateral damage."
Let's, for a moment, turn this picture around.
How would we feel in this country if another country were flying drones over our homes, schools, churches, and other "targets of interest" waiting to assassinate someone they thought deserving?
How would we feel if 20 innocent people in a wedding party we were attending were obliterated by mistake?
How would we feel if a drone destroyed our house killing our family while aiming at our neighbor's home?
lheritage | Aug 10, 2012 | 4:23pm
I can’t speak as a Christian, but as a woman of faith, I can tell you that I cannot reconcile it. Our country uses the excuse that it saves the lives of many of our troops, but what does that say about the value of the lives of all the innocent human beings who are killed accidentally.
Collateral damage? Have we no soul? If this happen on US soil, I believe we would be outraged, all of us…Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, non-believers, etc. We would gather our allies around the globe and demand that it stop.
Thank you, David, for turning it around and forcing us to look at it from this perspective. Maybe if we do more of this, we will come to understand that all human life is of value, be it here, there, or anywhere and drones are simply wrong, no matter where they land.
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