Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control

Posted by CODEPINK Staff

(Dedicated to Medea Benjamin and CODEPINK)

 

The video warrior arrives in the early hours

Ready for a grueling day beside his computer towers

For he’s the pilot of a General Atomics Predator Drone

Ready to send a missile into someone’s home

 

Firmly planted behind the flat screen monitor

From a hidden bunker in Nevada he can scan

The ground for child, woman or man.

Then with a push of a button he can

Disintegrate his victim according to plan

By launching a rocket of immense power and lethality--

Never mind the flagrant lack of morality.

 

B52s in Viet Nam unleashed bombs from 36,000 feet.

But the kid in Nevada has got this beat

He kills his victims from the other side of the world.

And keeps safe the “heimat” with flag unfurled

 

And of course his high value targets are never in error

And he always delivers their deserved terror

But when the intelligence is wrong

He must be stoic and strong and play along

That there is no collateral damage

For denial is an emotional advantage

No his conscience is clear

Ah, but that is just the point –I fear

For conscience is what is lacking here

And this ghastly deed has the feel

Of an impersonal game; but with victims quite real.

 

So what does he say on arriving home to his wife?

That he had spent a day in continuous strife?

And what does he to his kids cheerfully say

When they ask “Daddy” what did you do today?

 

No one has to be conditioned to kill

And block out those emotions at will

And dissociate from the victims all sense of humanity

But isn’t this a form  of insanity.

 

For people the world over want –and I know I am not wrong

To live, to love and to watch their children grow strong

Which is why CodePink toils to end war

And rid the world of this terrible horror.

 

HP Charman MD

3-24-09 to 10-30-2013