What once existed only in the most fringe corners of the military-industrial complex is now an increasingly significant component of the Pentagon’s brutal strategy for global control. Drones are essentially remote-controlled warplanes, heavily armed but operated by a “pilot” safely located thousands of miles away, usually in Nevada.
Employed primarily by the CIA for a time, the use of drones—including those for surveillance—has spread to a wide range of institutions of repression, from the Army to the New York Police Department. Other imperialist powers have quickly adopted this technology, as has the Israeli colonial state.
Drones are highly sophisticated killing machines, but their value to U.S. imperialism is primarily political, not technological. No U.S. service members are put in harm’s way during drone operations, and, therefore, they produce no U.S. casualties.
This form of warfare allows for unpre-cedented secrecy. Despite the occasional media interest in drones, there is scandalously limited coverage given that the issue involves no less than sustained bombings in at least three sovereign countries: Pakistan, Yemen and Afghanistan.
It also presents new challenges for the anti-war movement. The high potential of U.S. service members to be maimed or killed in battle has in the past created an enormous impetus for anti-war sentiment, as people asked what the Vietnam and Iraq wars were really for. These conflicts generated gruesome images and personal experiences that proliferated among the U.S. public and highlighted the brutal nature of the war machine.
Drone warfare is thus a much more media-friendly form of mass murder. It has, so far, carried fewer political risks for U.S. policymakers, as all its victims are in faraway countries, safely removed from public view.
Tasks of the anti-war movement
The job of the anti-war movement is to change this equation. More than ever, opponents of the U.S. war machine must look to build an internationalist spirit of solidarity and principled support for oppressed peoples’ right to self-determination.
We must spread the images and stories of the victims of U.S. drone warfare and show that we have more in common with our sisters and brothers in Pakistan, Yemen, Afghanistan and across the continent of Africa than we do with imperialist politicians, generals and their drones.
The VoteNoDrones.org online petition was launched by the ANSWER Coalition (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) to serve as a register for mass discontent with the drone and “kill list” programs.
ANSWER has also initiated the April 13 march and rally at the White House to say “NO” to U.S. drone attacks in Africa, the Middle East, Asia and everywhere.
It continues to support the work of March Forward!, an organization of veterans and service members that promotes ways to organize against the war machine from within.
These are all tools to help build a movement against the latest drone phase of imperialist expansion. The mass movement during the Vietnam era became a decisive factor in ending the war. While the ruling class is shifting its mechanisms, the potential and necessity of a mass anti-war movement remains.
