Though popular, and widespread, technically the term “drone” is erroneous. The U.S military refer to these machines as Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), while many within the Pentagon still use the original name, Unmanned Ariel Vehicle (UAV).
The earliest known concept for the modern drone first appeared in a 1940's issue of Popular Mechanics as a joint collaborative idea between of both Dr. Lee De Forest and U.A Sanabria.
However the first actual prototypes John Stuart Foster Jr, a man who was a nuclear physicist by trade, and a model airplane hobbyist during his leisure. By 1973, Foster would go on to present two prototypes during a display for observes from the Defense Advance Projects Agency (DARPA). Both proto-drones, he named “Praeire” and “Calere”, were powered by modified lawn-mower engines, and demonstrated the then impressive capability of sustaining a two hour flight while carrying up to 28 pounds a piece.
The first use of these machines in an actual combat situation occurred in 1973, when the nation of Israel used modified target drones, a model known specifically as the Ryan Firebee series, in the Yom Kippur War. These drones were deployed as decoys against the Egyptian military, deceiving their forces into firing the entirety of their anti-aircraft missiles munitions, leaving them decidedly open to actual fighter planes that exploited their mistake. Through the remaining years of the 70's, and much of the 80's, Israel would go on to become the pioneers in developing and deploying UAVs for various missions ranging from surveillance to decoys.
However, despite being the leading innovator in drone technology, it would be Iran, and not Israel, who would become the first nation to deploy the first actual “armed drone”. During the Iran-Iraq War, the former armed a drone with six RPG rounds to strike at targets.
The U.S, having watched the successful use of these drones, began developing their own program. In 1991 during the First Gulf War, the U.S was able to wage a UAV war, keeping at least one drone airborne at all times through the entire conflict. Witnessing this phenomenal success would lead a number of other nations to follow suit and began investing in their own drone programs.
Many falsely believe that modern UAS vehicles are piloted by a single individual with slightly less simplicity of a RC plane. The truth is far more complicated. These machines, such as the MQ-9 Reaper model, require three pilots, including a maintenance crew that handles both take-off and recovery. While it is true these drones can indeed preform some procedures autonomously, such as hold a given flight pattern, draw fuel from its wings, and report any mechanical failures, they still require a human presence.
Drones have become an extremely valuable asset to military and espionage actions. Those who back their increased use argue that the very nature of the war in Iraq, and the continued operations in Afghanistan, are very different from those fought in the past. U.S soldiers frequently find themselves in already dangerous combat situation made increasingly perilous and difficult when facing enemies using guerrilla tactics where insurgents can blend in with the local population until the opportunity to strike arrives, then just as easily vanish once more. Increasing the number of soldiers not only promises more opportunities and targets for the enemy to strike, but also increases the risk of collateral damage against civilians.
When facing an enemy that relies on hit-and-run tactics and sabotage, surveillance and intelligence is far more effective than simply increasing artillery and manpower. This is the vital place drones have began filling. A drone has the ability to gather video, audio and electronic information for hours at a time in high-risk situations, but without the risking the lives of actual pilots.
However, the development and escalating boom of UAVs have not gone as smoothly as much of the public would believe. Drones have become a very useful asset, and there for, a very powerful source of leverage. n 2010 alone, the Defense Department spent an estimated 2.5 billion on these machines, and such has lead to building tensions between different departments within the Pentagon.
Some, such as Senator John McCain, Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, and many others, have began voicing concern about the CIA having its own fleet of drones as the agency, in some opinions, leaves its espionage roots and become increasingly more militarized. Such an example has been the CIA using drones to launch missiles at targets in other countries without the authorization of Congress. The airstrikes continuing to pound targets-- and kill an increasing number of civilians-- in Pakistan are CIA operations.
Gordon Adams, a senior defense analyst at the Stimson Center, has referred to the brewing situation as “A turf fight in the disguise of a policy debate.”
Currently the CIA and Pentagon both operate their own fleet of drones dedicated to the ongoing mission of eliminating senior figures within al Qaeda, and other priority targets in other undisclosed locations. Currently the CIA's role is to gather and supply reconnaissance on the location, and identities of possible targets while the actual decision to strike falls to the Pentagon. However, the agency has been slowly, but steadily gaining more freedom and independence with its fleet.
If we are to believe reports, there has been 4 Americans killed in drone attacks since 2009. While it has been said that three of these individuals were not specifically targeted in these strikes, one Anwar al-Awlaki, killed in Yemen, was a different story. However, the debate is not whether or not these people were truly potential threats or not, and instead that the U.S government executed American citizens without due process or trial. It was simply decided they must die and such was carried out.
Does that not pave the way for a potentially dangerous precedent? Can we, the American people, simply believe our government, who have been decidedly dishonest concerning less pressing matters back home, to be honest about something as dangerous as who is or is not an enemy worthy only of swift death?
Yet, what of those who live in countries where drones strikes are frequent and sudden? Frequently, the sort of news fed to the American people paint Pakistan as a place where only insurgents, terrorist and their sympathizers live. Such could not be further from the truth. No matter how hard we would like to pretend. For those innocent men, women and children living in villages in Northwest Pakistan the drones are said to constantly hover in the skies above. Their Sword of Damocles like presence frightening and constant reminder that at given moment of the day a missile can rain from the sky without warning. This perpetual state of hyper-vigilance, fear and anxiety has begun to have detrimental psychological effects on the local population.
The continuous anticipation of a sudden and violent death against forces they are powerless to defend themselves from has also begun breaking down the communities. In a number of villages many of its members have begun refusing to attend important meetings, such as those concerning internal or tribal dispute resolutions, funerals, weddings and prayer because they are afraid gathering in numbers, the very same right we Americans take for granted, will attract the attention of a pilot who will than open fire. Such fears are justified with tragic stories of weddings, religious celebrations and other social events having been struck by mistake.
Such fears are fanned by incidents like that which occurred in the Yemeni city of Rad'a when a drone opened fire on a large gathering because it was believed to be a caravan composed of an affiliated al-Qaeda group. Instead the pilot mistakenly attacked civilians who were all apart of a wedding procession, outright killing 12 and wounding an estimated 15 others.
Human Rights Watch has revealed as many as 12 civilians were killed in December when a U.S. drone targeted vehicles that were part of a wedding procession going toward the groom’s village outside the central Yemeni city of Rad’a. According to HRW, "some, if not all those killed and wounded were civilians" and not members of the armed group al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula as U.S. and Yemeni government officials initially claimed. The report concluded that the attack killed 12 men, between the ages of 20 and 65, and wounded 15 others. It cites accounts from survivors, relatives of the dead, local officials and news media reports.
As the civilian casualties mount, to these populations, the U.S has become a callous power unleashing mechanical monsters against them for reasons they do not understand. Far more distressing is the way many militant groups seize these opportunities to bolster their ranks by using the example of indiscriminate drone strikes as an example to why their cause is just and worth joining. The U.S appears more and more as the devils these fanatics claim, and the callous use of these machines help pave the way for their propaganda with increasing ease.
And what of the pilots? Some critics argue that drone pilots are being desensitized as they control these machines from thousands a miles away with what arguably can be described as a video game. Such imagines have been further invoked upon discovering that a number of pilots refer to kills as “bug-splatter”. However, while there may be some truly callous pilots, it would be unfair to label every individual operator as such due to a colloquialism used by some.
Also, people have used such terms when it comes to violence and killing for generations. Words like fragged, dusted, buttoned-up, given the business, are just a few people have used in both war and gang violence as a means of distancing themselves from what they are actually doing. Even where I grew up at, East Oakland in the 90's, we often used “blasted” or “smoked” when someone was killed.
On the contrary, for the most part, drone pilots are not children having a blast as they guide real killing machine with video game like controllers. Killing has, and still does, take its toll on many of these men and women. While it is undoubtedly true that these pilots are not on the front lines like infantrymen, their missions often force them to watch individuals for days, weeks or even months, witnessing the target go about their lives, interact with others, perhaps visit loved ones, then the order to kill them is given. Perhaps far worse these missions require the pilots continue surveillance of the grisly aftermath for hours.
In a 2013 Live Science article; “Drone Wars: Pilots Reveal Debilitating Stress Beyond Virtual Battlefield”, an Air Force veteran and former drone pilot, who only wished to be identified as 'Slim' in order to protect his identity had this to say about the experiences he and his colleagues deal with;
“While the enemy is the enemy, you still understand that they are a real person. To extinguish a person's life is a very personal thing. While physically we don't experience the five senses when we engage a target — unlike [how] an infantryman might — in my experience, the emotional impact on the operator is equal."
Out of 1,100 pilots interviewed during an Air Force study revealed that 30 percent admitted to feeling burned out, suffered from high levels of stress and fatigue. A further 17 percent are considered “clinically distressed” which simply means the levels of stress has become detrimental enough to negatively affect these pilots professional and personal lives.
Perhaps the lesson in all this is that killing is not and should never come without consequences. Humanity has always searched for more effective ways to fight and kill one another. We have come a long, long away since bludgeoning one another to death with blunt objects. However, it is sometimes clear only our weapons have advanced while our base nature still has so much control.
Perhaps there should never be a way or time where wars are 'costless' because it is only through the lost of life, pain and mourning that humanity eventually tires out to return to short lived peace. The Drone Program has been repeatedly sold to Americans like some sort of miracle drug that will offer nothing but benefits with no negative side-effects. However, there is a cost. Be it the constant terror being visited upon innocent civilians, the silently suffering pilots being swept under the rug, or the U.S credibility and reputation, none of this has been free and the tab is still running.
Or perhaps the snake-oil sales men plugging this product were telling half truths. When a pilot burns out they just replace them with another. When civilians die just under report, or outright omit their deaths. In the end they reap the benefits while everyone else foot the bill. Imagine that.
America is more than just a physical place. It is also a series of noble ideas concerning liberty, freedom and justice...however we have never truly lived up to that potential. Not fully. It was made a lie during the slaughter of the Native Americans, Slavery, Jim Crow, mass discrimination against the Irish, the callous disregard and oppression of women, the internment of the Japanese, and many others.
Even now, many Americans are fooled that they still live in a Democracy that espouse those ideas despite the supposedly “free markets” being 90% owned by 6 corporations, of Comcast and AT&T pushing for an blatant monopoly of the internet, and nearly 7 million Americans used as slave labor in prisons. The ideas of liberty, justice and freedom now only truly exist for the wealthy, their bought politicians, and the corporations, the freedom to lie, steal, circumvent the laws
We, the U.S could become all we ever claimed to aspire to. We could truly become an enlightened nation, and beacon of freedom, truth and compassion if we truly desired it. However, this path we currently walk is one littered with the bodies and scarred psyches of the innocent. Ultimately this blood is not only on the Obama Administration's, and political elites hands. In the end the American people are also responsible if they choose not to speak out.
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