[HCCN] Fwd: Like killing flies

[Judith Robbins]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: "Global Network" <globalnet at mindspring.com>
> Date: June 23, 2009 4:59:40 PM EDT
> To: "GN List Serve" <globenet at yahoogroups.com>
> Subject: Like killing flies
> Reply-To: "Global Network" <globalnet at mindspring.com>
>
> Like killing flies
>
> http://www.timesrecord.com/articles/2009/06/23/opinion/letters/ 
> doc4a410a46e9925659592879.txt
> Tuesday, June 23, 2009
> Times Record (Brunswick, Maine)
> Dear Editor:
>
> The national media made a big deal about President Obama killing a  
> fly. His “I got the sucker” was even compared to a similar moment  
> by honest Abe Lincoln.
>
> But sadly little time in the national media is spent describing the  
> tragic consequences to hundreds of innocent civilians in  
> Afghanistan and Pakistan who have been killed by United States  
> unmanned aerial vehicles, or “drones” as they are popularly called.
>
> These drones are directed by military space satellites and flown by  
> U.S. soldiers sitting at computer terminals inside Creech Air Force  
> Base near Las Vegas, Nev. The Air Force named these drones the  
> “Predator” and the “Reaper.”  The pilots watch in “real time” as  
> cameras on the drones send back images from the war zone and in  
> split-second time a button is pressed and missiles are fired. Is it  
> the Taliban?  Is it a wedding?
>
> Can there be the slightest doubt that this “hands off” way of  
> killing today is absolutely repugnant? What does it say about us as  
> a nation that we can cavalierly kill from a distance with little  
> conscience or public outcry?
>
> It’s as if we are just killing flies.
>
> Bruce K. Gagnon
> Coordinator
> Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
> PO Box 652
> Brunswick, ME 04011
> (207) 443-9502
> http://www.space4peace.org
> globalnet at mindspring.com
> http://space4peace.blogspot.com  (Blog)
>

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