{"id":4937,"date":"2021-09-11T10:23:15","date_gmt":"2021-09-11T00:23:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sams-blog.com\/?p=4937"},"modified":"2023-06-20T13:37:34","modified_gmt":"2023-06-20T03:37:34","slug":"killing-people-remotely-the-fallout-of-the-us-war-on-terror","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sams-blog.com\/?p=4937","title":{"rendered":"Killing people remotely: the fallout of the US war on terror"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/National_Bird_(film)\">National Bird<\/a><\/em> is a disturbing documentary. It isn&#8217;t new, having been made in 2016, but it outlines in stark detail the issues that are part and parcel of the drone program which the US has used to kill hundreds, if not thousands, of people in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and a number of other countries.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The use of remote killing was even seen recently after a <a href=\"https:\/\/edition.cnn.com\/2021\/08\/26\/asia\/afghanistan-kabul-airport-blast-intl\/index.html\">bomb<\/a> went off at Kabul Airport following the US withdrawal from Afghanistan. There were boasts that two people responsible for the blast had been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visiontimes.com\/2021\/08\/29\/us-strikes-isis-k-target-after-kabul-airport-blast-biden-warns-of-more-attacks.html\">killed by a drone<\/a> \u2013 only for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/09\/10\/world\/asia\/us-air-strike-drone-kabul-afghanistan-isis.html\">truth<\/a> to emerge later.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And that was that the people killed were in no way connected to the blast. Using faulty intelligence and an over-quick finger, America had pulled the trigger again and killed innocents.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The number of people killed by drone strikes <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Civilian_casualties_from_U.S._drone_strikes\">shot up<\/a> by a huge number during the eight years that Barack Obama was in office. The man who spoke a lot about hope and change also killed people left, right and centre, without so much as blinking an eye.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>National Bird<\/em> covers the tales of three drone operators in the US; they are part of the kill chain, with other US officials involved in pulling the trigger. In one case, that of a woman, it has led to post-traumatic stress disorder, which has been officially acknowledged, making her eligible for financial aid. This woman has never set foot in a battlefield; she has been monitoring drone footage at a desk.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/p92wPlchHKY\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A third drone operator, a man, is now on the run at the time the film was made, because he revealed details of the operation which are, as always, supposed to stay secret.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The producer of the documentary, Sonia Kennebeck, is a remarkable woman. In an interview, she tells of the difficulties involved in making National Bird, the precautions she had to take and the legal niceties she had to observe to avoid getting hit with lawsuits. Her story is an inspiring one.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As many countries mark the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the US in September 2001, one must always bear in mind that the fallout of that day has, in many ways, ended up being worse than the day itself.<\/p>\r\n<!-- Start of StatCounter Code for Default Guide -->\r\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\nvar sc_project=2720500; \r\nvar sc_invisible=1; \r\nvar sc_security=\"d25d8712\"; \r\nvar scJsHost = ((\"https:\" == document.location.protocol) ?\r\n\"https:\/\/secure.\" : \"http:\/\/www.\");\r\ndocument.write(\"<sc\"+\"ript type='text\/javascript' src='\" + scJsHost+ \"statcounter.com\/counter\/counter.js'><\/\"+\"script>\");\r\n<\/script><\/p>\r\n<noscript>\r\n<div class=\"statcounter\"><a title=\"Web Analytics\" href=\"http:\/\/statcounter.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"statcounter\" src=\"\/\/c.statcounter.com\/2720500\/0\/d25d8712\/1\/\" alt=\"Web Analytics\"><\/a><\/div>\r\n<\/noscript><!-- End of StatCounter Code for Default Guide -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>National Bird is a disturbing documentary. It isn&#8217;t new, having been made in 2016, but it outlines in stark detail the issues that are part and parcel of the drone program which the US has used to kill hundreds, if not thousands, of people in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and a number of other countries. The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14,6,27,63,20,26,4,25,22,52],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-afghanistan","category-america","category-government","category-iraq","category-middle-east","category-pakistan","category-racism","category-religion","category-terrorism","category-war"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":895,"url":"https:\/\/sams-blog.com\/?p=895","url_meta":{"origin":4937,"position":0},"title":"Afghanistan withdrawal timed for US elections","date":"June 27, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"NEXT year, Barack Obama will face the task of trying to get re-elected. In normal times, the elimination of Osama bin Laden would have sufficed to see him through. But these are not normal times; try what he does, the US economy does not seem to be responding. Hence, he\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Afghanistan&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":67,"url":"https:\/\/sams-blog.com\/?p=67","url_meta":{"origin":4937,"position":1},"title":"What are Western troops doing in Afghanistan?","date":"September 23, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"TWENTY-ONE Australian soldiers have died in Afghanistan since Canberra decided to join the American mission to that country. Thousands of American soldiers have been killed, and a goodly number of other Western forces have also paid the ultimate sacrifice. But to what end? All these deaths have been in vain,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Afghanistan&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":574,"url":"https:\/\/sams-blog.com\/?p=574","url_meta":{"origin":4937,"position":2},"title":"Bin Laden's death: the fallout","date":"May 2, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"THE death of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan today means that the US President Barack Obama will have absolutely no problem getting re-elected. Bin Laden was killed by American secret service troops in Abbotabad, an affluent suburb close to the Pakistan capital, Islamabad. Not that Obama has looked like having\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Afghanistan&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2384,"url":"https:\/\/sams-blog.com\/?p=2384","url_meta":{"origin":4937,"position":3},"title":"Zero Dark Thirty is a work of fiction","date":"February 2, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"FOR Americans, September 11, 2001, is a date that tends to awake their sense of patriotism. There are few in that country who can regard this day with even a shred of objectivity and realise that the attack was the result of the US of A's actions in the Middle\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Afghanistan&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1558,"url":"https:\/\/sams-blog.com\/?p=1558","url_meta":{"origin":4937,"position":4},"title":"Pakistan feels the blowback from the US","date":"December 6, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"WHEN Britain engineered the split of the Indian subcontinent back in 1947, there was little indication that the colonial masters would face a big blowback. The old policy of divide and rule was used to give the Muslims a separate state, resulting in one of the bigger bloodbaths in history\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Afghanistan&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2204,"url":"https:\/\/sams-blog.com\/?p=2204","url_meta":{"origin":4937,"position":5},"title":"It's a bitter pill to swallow: Al Qaeda has won","date":"September 11, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Today marks 11 years since Al Qaeda flew planes into the towers of the World Trade Centre in New York and made the US aware that it was not safe on its own soil. Sad to say, the US has used the attacks down the years to curtail freedoms for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Afghanistan&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sams-blog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sams-blog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sams-blog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sams-blog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sams-blog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4937"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/sams-blog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4937\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5386,"href":"https:\/\/sams-blog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4937\/revisions\/5386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sams-blog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sams-blog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sams-blog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}