The international community is outraged
over the careless devastation and lack of accountability of the U.S.’s
drone program. At least part of this uproar results from the
institutionalized mystery surrounding these flying killing machines.
However, one former member of the U.S. military knows the drone program
all too well… and he’s harshly critical of it, too.
According to an NPR report,
Brandon Bryant joined the military fresh out of college in 2006 so that
he could pay back his student loans. The U.S. Air Force assigned Bryant
to its Predator program where he was a sensor operator. Rather than
piloting traditional jets, however, Bryant captained drones.
Yes, you read that right: drones DO have pilots. While no one is
actually inside a drone, the technology is not yet so advanced that it
can carry out actions entirely by itself. As a result, Bryant found
himself taking the helms – from a computer located in a trailer in Las
Vegas.
During his first mission, Bryant witnessed American troops dying via
the drone’s camera. He was helpless to do anything from his remote
location, in part due to the combatants’ proximity to U.S. soldiers.
Instead, he was instructed to fire a missile on a group of men away from
the fighting.
“After the smoke clears, there’s a crater there and you can see body
parts from the people,” explained Bryant. And as powerful as the drone’s
weaponry is, death is not always instantaneous for its targets. “[One]
guy… his left leg had been taken off above the knee, and I watched him
bleed out.”
Worst still, Bryant suspected these deaths were unnecessary. Although
the men were armed, their inactivity in the local fight led him to
believe they had weapons to defend themselves while living in a warzone.
“These guys had no hostile intent,” Bryant said. “In Montana, everyone
has a gun. These guys could have been local people that had to protect
themselves. I think we jumped the gun.” He noted that the official
report later labeled these men as “enemy combatants.”
When Bryant attempted to talk about what he experienced, he was met
with silence. In general, he reported, drone operators avoid discussing
their work even with each other.
The second time Bryant manned a drone attack, he fired on a house
with militants inside. As the missile cruised toward its target, Bryant
watched a child run next to the house. After the impact, Bryant saw no
sign of the child. This time, instead of getting emotional about his
part in the casualties, he went numb.
This numbness persisted for his remaining years of service. Bryant
detached himself from his work, adopting a perspective that, in warfare,
“good guys can die, bad guys can die, and innocents can die.”
Finally recognizing his unhealthy attitude toward killing, Bryant
opted to quit the Air Force. “I couldn’t do it anymore,” he said. “I
stopped myself, and I said that’s not me. I was taught to respect life,
even if in the realities of war we have to take it, it should be done
with respect.”
Alas, the drone program has only grown since Bryant’s resignation.
Obama’s onetime counterterrorism adviser Michael Boyle recently
suggested that the administration may favor drone strikes over detention
centers given the controversies surrounding places like Guantanamo Bay.
Of course, the U.S. government has got to be kidding itself if it
thinks critics’ objections to torturing and holding potential terrorists
indefinitely without trial are assuaged by just outright killing
suspects (and innocent bystanders) with no questions asked. The only
reason drone usage has not turned into the full-scale scandal of
Guantanamo Bay is due to the relative lack of information.
As for Bryant, he is now a member of a veterans’ group where he says
he is finally experiencing the camaraderie he hoped the military would
offer but was unattainable in a Las Vegas trailer. Like many veterans,
Bryant is currently undergoing treatment for PTSD. Also like many veterans, Bryant is still waiting to receive his benefits to cover this treatment.
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