PeaceGarret

The forever drone war

Cutting back on our drone bombings around the world does not seem to be a priority for anyone, nor something that many people want to discuss. I was glad to see Paul D. Miller, who was National Security Council director for Afghanistan from 2007 to 2009, write an op-ed titled “When will the U.S. drone war end?” in the Washington Post on November 17:

“But bombing by drone is also an act of war that kills people. And wars are supposed to end. They have to have an end. Endless war is unacceptable and dangerous. The U.S. government simply cannot arrogate the right to wage an endless, global war against anyone it deems a threat to national security. The prospect of such a war should trouble anyone who has the least acquaintance with history or political philosophy.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/when-will-the-us-drone-war-end/2011/11/15/gIQAZ677VN_story.html

It’s good someone with his mainstream credibility is saying this.  I would be more critical of the drone bombings than he is (surprise); for example, Miller says:

“It is clear that drones need to be in the skies for some years yet.”

“Some years” in these matters can mean 50 years, 60 years  –  much longer than he may be thinking. Really. I mean it. We’ve had troops in Germany for 66 years now, after WWII, right?  And when we took over the Philippines in 1898, we stayed as a ruling occupying force for 48 years (the nation was granted independence in 1946). Americans do not like to learn from history, but there it is. If we nod along as Miller says “some more years” for drone bombings, that can be decades. Occupations — in this case, an occupation of airspace — take on an inertia and do not end easily.

Also, Miller does not point out specifically that in wars, people die on both sides; and that means that, in this drone war, Americans may die. The people we are bombing may retaliate, somehow.  Miller writes that drone bombings have become “almost . . . risk free;” and I’m afraid we are forgetting that there will be blowback (just as Chalmers Johnson predicted, correctly, about our occupations abroad).

The people we are drone-bombing are going to kick us in the teeth someday! And unless people who have qualms about the drone war work to stop it, its inertia will allow it to continue for the rest of our lives!

There you are, America.  You needed to hear that.