Drones and Democracy. Just rubble and charred stuff...

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Drones and Democracy

By Kathy Kelly and Joshua Brollier

May 23, 2010 "Huffington Post" -- Islamabad, Pakistan -- On May 12th, the day after a U.S. drone strike killed 24 people in Pakistan's North Waziristan, two men from the area agreed to tell us their perspective as eyewitnesses of previous drone strikes.

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It's hard to slow down and look at horrifying realities. Jane Mayer, writing for The New Yorker, ("The Predator War," October 26, 2009), quoted a former C.I.A. official's description of a drone attack:

"People who have seen an air strike live on a monitor described it as both awe-inspiring and horrifying. 'You could see these little figures scurrying, and the explosion going off, and when the smoke cleared there was just rubble and charred stuff,' a former C.I.A. officer who was based in Afghanistan after September 11th says of one attack."

"Human beings running for cover are such a common sight," Jane Mayer continues, "that they have inspired a slang term: 'squirters.'"

Just rubble and charred stuff...

The social worker recalled arriving at a home that was hit, in Miranshah, at about 9:00 p.m., close to one year ago. The house was beside a matchbox factory, near the degree college. The drone strike had killed three people. Their bodies, carbonized, were fully burned. They could only be identified by their legs and hands. One body was still on fire when he reached there. Then he learned that the charred and mutilated corpses were relatives of his who lived in his village, two men and a boy aged seven or eight. They couldn't pick up the charred parts in one piece. Finding scraps of plastic they transported the body parts away from the site. Three to four others joined in to help cover the bodies in plastic and carry them to the morgue.

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http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25519.htm
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kathy-kelly/drones-and-democracy_b_581175.html