Drone Victims Aim Back With A Humanizing Poster
dharma222
New
Two weeks ago, artists gathered in a rural community of Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province to unveil a gigantic portrait of a local child whose parents and siblings were allegedly killed by missiles fired from a U.S. drone
It irritates me when innocent people are killed by drone sent by USA in the act of fighting terrorism. Those people have no involvement in this war and yet, they are the one that are killed. Imagine your family members being killed by drone strike. It must feel terrible for them. As the saying goes, 'You cannot fight fire with fire'. It will only make matter worse. I fear for the generation which will seek revenge (justly) for their murdered family members. It will only bought more killings and more suffering. This is the reason why there are more terrorist group after the war on terror. People who family member are killed will try to get revenge and goes to join terrorist group. That why USA Will never win the war on terror. Buddha once said, 'Hatred is indeed appeased by hatred in this world. It is appeased by non-hatred. This is an eternal law.''
Also, this shows the significant and power of image. Perhaps they could make an image of all the victims and show them to the world. It will have a powerful effect.
I would like to know about how you feel about this incident and your opinions of it.
Extra information
A Drone Warrior's Torment: Ex-Air Force Pilot Brandon Bryant on His Trauma From Remote Killing 
Comments
I think it's horrible on several levels. First, obviously, the killing of innocent people to accomplish getting a small number of "bad guys." Same with any war, far more innocent people die in our quest to get the bad guys.
Second, because it somehow makes war even worse for soldiers, too. The less personal war gets, the more it impacts the psychological health of soldiers and seems to make their reentry even harder. As our technology and psychological knowledge have increased our ability to help soldiers doesn't seem to have. Drone strikes are just another way to detach from the killing. There is a college not far from us that teaching drone piloting (a bachelors in aeronautics with specialty in unmanned aircraft operation) , and there are kids who are looking into it as a career choice without really knowing the implications. They believe it is better to kill from afar, to not have faces to go with who they just killed. Dangerous territory, even more so than previously (imo, anyhow). Some of them thin it fun to get to go to war and not have to see the damage. I don't understand why people think that would be a good career.
My teenager is going into hard science (of some sort, undecided exactly which) when he goes to college in 18 months. We've talked extensively about the importance of finding an avenue he can feel good about, a direction in helping people and humanity as a whole, not harming. We talked about how the inventor of the atomic bomb felt after seeing his invention used in Japan. It's just astonishing to me that parents would encourage their children to participate in careers intentionally designed to kill people. Somehow,I don't think most of them will be working in Amazon's drone delivery program.
As with all conflict; senseless.
Spinning on a rock in the middle of nowhere kicking the shizer out of each other never made much sense to me.
...and there are kids who are looking into it as a career choice without really knowing the implications. They believe it is better to kill from afar, to not have faces to go with who they just killed.
I am American Indian. My people have subsistence hunted for our entire history. As a result, one of the traditional rights of passage is taking ones first deer. While less common today, the way I was taught was to first learn how to move silently, then to stalk and track the deer and learn it's routine and then, to kill it armed with only a knife. Because of the weapon used, it required physical contact with the deer. I know of no one who, after such a kill, ever romanized killing again. It was sometimes a necessity, but the experience of feeling the life leave another being and seeing its eyes glaze over as it left is a powerful lesson.
Definitely, yes. When I was growing up, we hunted and fished for food. There were times my dad was laid off for months at a time from his job. I was thankful we had an ability to hunt and fish for our food, as I knew that many others did not have that ability and had to go without. But any time I shot a grouse or reeled in a fish and so on, it was with deep regret and many apologies to the animal for having to give it's life for us. As I grew up, I moved into a city where hunting and fishing just wasn't a thing. And then I moved back home, and my oldest son wanted to hunt. Since it always felt part of my tradition, I took him but I was relieved to realize that I don't have to do that at this point. That I don't have to watch life drain from an animal and be responsible for dismantling it's body. I was happy to find neither my son nor myself enjoyed it, and we stopped. But we still eat meat and that removal from the process is actually harder, and worse. There is little ability to experience that reverence for the life that died, to apologize, to be kind in seeing it off to it's next life, and so on. I find that very hard. So I find it difficult to understand why people specifically seek that out. I don't make excuses for our meat eating. Even though I am not experiencing killing the animal, I don't pretend I have no responsibility in it. Doing it this way isn't really the easy way out we think it is. It impacts our psychology and our nature more than we want to realize.
I have fairly strong opinions about it. For starters, I think we've been intervening in Middle Eastern politics and pushing our weight around for decades (particularly because of their strategic position and rich oil supplies), from invading and occupying two predominately Muslim countries and bombing others to supporting dictators with money and weapons (e.g., Mubarak) and backing military coups against democratic governments (e.g., the 1953 CIA-backed coup in Iran).
Moreover, my opinion is that Obama has set a dangerous precedent with his new role as judge, jury, and executioner, personally selecting and ordering the deaths of suspected terrorists and militants around the world via drone strikes and other means. And if you think what Obama is doing in that regard is bad, just wait until a hawkish Republican or Democrat who isn't a Nobel Peace Laureate or as concerned about civil rights gets into the White House now that that cat is out of the bag.
Despite his apparent conviction that we've been able to "restore a sense of America as the sole, indispensable power" and "mobilize around a set of values and a set of principles, and ensure that the international rules of the road are followed," what Obama really seems to be doing is solidifying our reputation as 'the Great Satan,' a global bully who personifies the spirit of Thrasymachian justice, which is nothing but 'the advantage of the stronger.' Our drone strikes in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, etc. routinely kill innocent civilians, and will likely further radicalize people against us.
At some point, I think we, as a nation, need to take a critical look at how we've helped to contribute to the anger many feel against us and the material conditions that have nurtured it. We're not as innocent in this as we may like to believe, and we can't continue to ignore the fact that our actions have a serious impact in a world where we're one of the dominant powers. To use the old cliché, with great power comes great responsibility; and frankly, we haven't been all that responsible with our 'superpower' status.
Unlike Spider-man, who realized early on, after the death of his uncle, that his selfish pursuits and flagrant use of his superpowers had serious and often tragic consequences, we haven't seemed to grasp that lesson yet, and continue to make the same mistakes over and over again. And while mistakes in some shape or form will always be made, we have to own up to ours and truly learn from them if we're ever going to help put an end to this self-perpetuating cycle of violence.
(claps)
I have been involved in a twelve step program for 8003 days (8000 was noteworthy for a math geek like me). In such a program it is customary to have a guide through the program called a sponsor. My first sponsor would often gently suggest that I try new approaches to life and I would, just as regularly, argue that such actions wouldn't work. She would end such discussions by telling me, "You have mastered your old mistakes; dare to risk making a new one." Many countries, as well as individuals, might do well to risk making new ones.