Kick out the killer drones

SYRACUSE, N.Y.--Nearly 250 antiwar protesters from across New York state gathered outside the main gate of Hancock Field on November 15 to protest the arrival of the U.S. Air Force's MQ-1 Reaper unmanned attack aircraft squadron.

The Air Force's 174th Fighter Wing--based at Hancock, a New York Air National Guard base near Syracuse--is being converted from flying manned F-16 jet fighters to training pilots to operate the unmanned drones from the ground.

The drones now stationed at Hancock Field will be used to train approximately 200 pilots a year, according to the Air Force. They will fly training missions over the mountainous terrain of the Adirondack State Park between Hancock and the U.S. Army base at Fort Drum near Watertown, N.Y.

"Today, many people from all over New York came together to protest the presence of these drones, which shouldn't be based here or anywhere else for that matter," said Carol Baum, an organizer with the Syracuse Peace Council. "This is just part of the larger picture of U.S. intervention in the Middle East. We have to say no to the drones, but also no to the larger picture."

The protesters came from Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Ithaca, Albany, Saratoga, Binghamton, Watertown, Canaan and Kingston. Called by the Syracuse Peace Council, participating groups included Veterans for Peace, Military Families Speak Out, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Bethlehem Neighbors for Peace, Rochester Against War, the International Socialist Organization, Students for a Democratic Society, Catholic Worker, Women Against War, Green Party of New York and many others.

Kathy Kelly, the Nobel Peace Prize nominee and co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Non-Violence, addressed the crowd. "It's interesting to see so many people here are ahead of the curve," Kelly said. "The military is saying that we can take troops out of harm's way if we send in more of these drones. But you aren't falling for this. You know that these drones will only continue to bring death and destruction to the people of Afghanistan."

Also present was Elliot Adams, a member of the board of directors of Veterans for Peace. "We all agree that its wrong to engage in targeted assassinations, but what these drones are doing is really untargeted assassinations," Adams said. "Somehow it's okay to target someone we think is guilty of something, without trial or sentencing, and not only kill them, but the people in their immediate presence. So they tell us that they got this one bad guy, but they don't tell us about the dozens killed in the several strikes previous that missed their target."

Another issue is the safety of the people in the region with these drones flying overhead. On September 13, an MQ-9 was flying a combat mission over Afghanistan when the Air Force lost positive control of the aircraft, resulting in the drone flying out of control towards the Afghan border. An F-15E was sent in to destroy it. If this happened during training, the crashed drone could result in a forest fire in the Adirondacks or crash into a home.

The Reaper drones are primarily used along the Afghan-Pakistan border, targeting the movement of Taliban resistance forces through the mountainous terrain. Drone attacks are frequently based on bad intelligence from warlords wishing to use the U.S. military to settle their political scores.

"It's important to protest the drones that are intended to make the war more palatable," said Joe Lombardo of Bethlehem Neighbors for Peace. "The hope is to reignite the antiwar movement in New York state and around the rest of the country."