Time to ditch the deadly drones

In a September article titled ‘Renouncing the Right to Bear Drones’, Ken Butigan wrote: “... geometrically multiply casualties with every turn of the technological wheel ... has proven chillingly advantageous to systems of domination.”

In August, crowds of Yemeni protesters were outraged by numerous American drone attacks, because they frequently kill innocent civilians instead of militants and because they violate the sovereignty of Yemen. But how can such protesters make that claim when the current president, let alone the deposed one, turns a blind eye to such attacks and a deaf ear to his people, whose children, in some parts of the country, are reported to be afraid to go to school. And to have developed anxiety insomnia due to the real risk of being blown to smithereens by something raining down on them, with zero warning, literally from the sky.

We are not talking here about a handful of innocent victims. In Yemen alone, nearly 1,000 have so far been drone-executed, without due process, since these attacks began around the time of the 9/11 crimes in the US. The reason, apparently, is the selection of targets. If the criterion, as has been reported, is a young man, with a beard, with a gun slung over his shoulder, in an area of the country where “militants” live, then this slow massacre of innocents is quite predictable. For it is estimated that there are 30 million guns in a country of 24 million. As with all Third World countries suffering from poverty and illiteracy, the number of children is disproportionately high and you cannot go anywhere in Yemen without seeing lots and lots of children, with dirty but smiling faces, waving to you or engaging you in conversation, or just staring at you.

Yemenis suffer from lack of education, on top of serious economic deprivation, but they are politically savvy and they know that their leaders are complicit in these executions, which are reported to have increased their sympathy for opposition to the government, including that by Al Qaida. It may even be true that recruitment of young men by that group has increased, as a consequence.

So, why does the US persist? The main reason is that there are “no American boots on the ground”, which makes it possible for the Barack Obama administration to enjoy the support of two thirds of the American public. However, as these facts become better known, even the complacent American public will eventually recognise the folly and criminality of this programme. After all, had it been effective, it would have, long ago, succeeded in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan.

By contrast, in impoverished Pakistan, Chief Justice Dost Mohammad Khan and the junior judge on Pakistan’s two-judge Peshawar High Court panel decided that killings by drone constitute war crimes, as they lead to the deaths of innocent civilians. The very recent execution of Hakimullah Mehsud, the leader of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), has been strongly condemned by the foreign ministry in Pakistan, with the following statement: “The latest drone strike will have a negative impact on the government’s initiative to undertake a dialogue with the TTP, but the government is determined to continue with these efforts to engage with the TTP, to bring an end to the ongoing violence and make them a part of mainstream politics within the parameters of our constitution.” The statement added that the recent US drone strikes violated their sovereignty and international humanitarian laws.

The question that comes to mind is: How is it in the interest of peace in that region to assassinate the leader who, finally, managed to convince the Taliban to initiate peace negotiations with the new government of Nawaz Sharif, who had undertaken to open unconditional talks with the Taliban?

On August 7, the Wall Street Journal reported the presence of a joint command centre in Yemen, where officials from the two countries evaluate intelligence and decide when and how to launch missile strikes against the highly secretive list. If true, President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi and his inner circle may be held accountable, one day, because the transitional justice team in the National Dialogue Conference has successfully passed a law to criminalise killings outside the rule of law, according to a November 4 report by Press TV.

Why is it that we have not heard any condemnation of murder-by-drone of the innocent majority of victims in Yemen from the foreign ministry there?

I believe that effective opposition to drone war will come from the West, to whom Obama will have to listen. For example, peace and justice organisations in Germany have launched a major campaign to oppose the German government’s recently revealed plan to acquire combat drones. The organisations met in Hannover in March 2013, to begin the joint campaign.

Dr Qais Ghanem is a retired neurologist, radio show host, poet and novelist. His two novels are Final Flight from Sanaa and Two Boys from Aden College. His non-fiction My Arab Spring, My Canada is found on Amazon.com. His collection of English and Arabic poems From Left to Right (2nd edition) was published this year. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/@dialogueluta