Name the Dead
Image: wired.co.uk
Article: Ravinesh Sakaran – Contributor
A couple weeks ago, the London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism (BIJ) launched a project that aims to record the names and numbers of people who were killed by US drone strikes in Pakistan.
The project labeled ‘Name The Dead,’ also aims to put names to the numbers while giving importance to biographical details of those who have deceased so that the public and the politicians can better explain the intricacies of what is happening on the ground in Pakistan.
Furthermore, the Obama administration has claimed that the drones are an extremely precise weapon that has only targeted al-Qaeda and its affiliated groups, while causing almost no civilian harm. However, the Obama administration has not published its own account of who it believes has been killed.
According to the BIJ, there have been 2500 casualties resulting from drone strikes and approximately 1/5 of the dead are civilians.
Thus, this only leads me to believe that the Obama administration is only spouting a load of horseshit. I have been a long-time opponent of this kind of warfare, not only that drones separate the human aspect of warfare, and morphing it into a video game like scenario by dropping bombs from a control tower, thousands of miles away from the “warzone,” it also succumbs the US military to sink as low as the Islamic terrorists that they despise.
It wasn’t too long after 9/11 when the Americans bashed the terrorists of acting cowardly by hurting innocent victims; now it seems that the Americans are behaving cowardly by making it rain bombs in heavy civilian populated areas.
The BIJ preliminary findings suggest that 95 civilian children have perished resulting from this senseless drone attacks. This report is devastating to say the least, however many would argue that it is a necessary evil to eradicate terrorism.
I totally disagree with that notion: if there is a need for an assassination then surgical strikes that involve boots on the ground should be the way to go, no matter how high the risk is, this is the cost of war on terror and to keep innocent civilians out of harms way.
Do not get me wrong—I despise the terrorists as much as the next guy, but after committing mass murder through the drone program and having the audacity to lie to the public that it doesn’t harm civilians is absolutely appalling.
I believe that these drone attacks will only contribute to a vicious cycle as more and more innocent victim are killed, the higher the likelihood the survivors of these attacks will be swayed to the rhetoric of Islamic fundamentalists that will in turn produce more terrorists.
Lastly, kudos to the BIJ for forming this project to shed some light on the aftermath of these drone strikes, as I hope this will encourage the American taxpayers to confront their representatives on using their money to fund killings abroad.
