End the Drone Strikes

by Jody Mackey

Last night I listened to the final debate as President Obama and Governor Romney yet again supported the use of drones.  Over 80% of the deaths by drones occurred under President Obama and weekly he signs off on a kill list.  Our national dialogue insists drones are cheaper and more accurate than other options while eliminating any risk to U.S. soldiers and being indispensable against Al Qaeda. Yet even before I traveled to Pakistan with Code Pink’s Peace Delegation to Ground the Drones I carried the wrongness of drones deep in my bones.

In early October I joined 32 Americans and a Canadian in Islamabad.  We bused 14 hours towards Waziristan where most of the drones operate.  We sat with Karim Khan, an English-speaking Pashtun who spoke with such dignity about his brother, a teacher in the local school for girls and his son who had just graduated from high school.  Both were killed by six hellfire missiles that struck Karim’s home. Our government quickly stated that a militant, Haji Omar was killed in that strike but he wasn’t even in the area.  Haji had been ‘killed’ once before and then also listed as killed in three later drone attacks. Karim grimly asked how many times a man can die. That’s five sites destroyed to catch one militant. That’s also the force behind a girls’ school buried in the earth leaving the students without a teacher.

Noor Behram documents drone strikes in pictures. In 27 strikes he’s photographed over 100 boys just before their burial, however there are many where nothing identifiable was left or they were buried before he got there. Girls and women are also in the homes targeted by drones.  You see, they almost never leave their compounds and due to Islamic tradition the men will not speak to outsiders of the women or allow photographs of them. The closest he’s come is pictures of women’s bloody clothes blown into the trees. He estimates at least 670 women died in just those 27 strikes.  Though he is suffering from Post-traumatic stress from this endeavor he continues to run toward each drone strike so that you will know the truth and the drones will stop.

We met acting Ambassador Hoagland who repeated the convenient statistic that the number of innocents killed since Obama entered office is almost zero, “in the low double-digits.”  We’ve deployed missiles from drones to over 350 sites in Pakistan and our government says there have been almost no civilian casualties. Yet President Obama’s first drone strike three days after his inauguration struck Malike Gulstan Khan’s home killing him and 4 family members.  He was a local pro-government and pro-peace funerals, weddings and jirgas have all been targeted.

There are many reasons to end drones, from civilian deaths to undermining respect for the rule of law.  There is no clear evidence that they have made America safer overall so I believe even more deeply that drone strikes are doing more harm than good.  Please remember the plea given by the hundreds of Pakistanis we encountered, “When you go home, tell your government to stop sending drones.”