The narrative of drone warfare contains the folly and necessary deceptive oversimplification that tends to be a usual ingredient in politics where the product is sold out as a less risk prone and more efficient tool employed in a macabre fashion to target individuals reminding ordinary folks of a play station computer game at best. The concept of how such a narrative has overridden serious debates and political discourses is distinctly unfathomable and frightening at the same time. It’s common to witness political representatives going at each other on how to wage a smart war to limit a spillover multiplying the effects to several countries and even continents at times.
Despite the bipartisan play at how a clean war should be waged and how drones happen to be a necessary evil superpowers in the modern era can’t do without, it’s somewhat important to look at how one reaches those conclusions. Living under functioning democracies tend to turn its populations slightly if not totally suspicious of those whom they elect. The concept of a democracy is to to protect the citizenry from a powerful elite into abusing its power and to allow it to remain accountable for its actions. That in no way means that democracies are not exposed to the threats of a power hungry elite that seeks to hollow out this substantial edifice from within but how would they do that if they can be held accountable by their people?
In the case of empires disguised as democracies, the answer is fairly uncomplicated. Empires by their very nature tend and even have to perceive their citizens as the enemy. Unlike in relatively healthy democracies where the threat is perceived from without, empires tend to view their people as the ones in need of being controlled and kept uninformed for the simple reason that in a uni-polar world a powerful empire faces no genuine threat from the outside world but from its own citizens to limit its tentacles of power and privilege. Since the mask of democracy is firmly placed on its face, the people as long as they don’t question the undiluted power their rulers possess, get to enjoy basic rights that a democracy has to offer. But since the people living under an empire are the primary enemies that can effectively change the status quo therefore, it’s more urgent to inject them with the notion that the aims of an empire bent on tightening its economic and militaristic noose around the world, are aligned with the aims of their people. To appear as an outpost of those that are being represented is crucial to garner their support for illegal and belligerent acts. So what flute to play in a Pied Piper fashion to attract the hapless people more importantly even dissenters to your tune?
Fear and paranoia! Countries under grave threats or during wars tend to act in a different fashion for which they are excused by its citizens as dire times call for dire measures. A 21 century empire, if it must aim to fulfill its strategic goals, must be under an existential threat that justifies drone warfare and the use of cluster bombs. A standard tactic to numb any domestic opposition to blatant acts of wholesale murder through daily doses of fear being injected into their systems where the reality is skewed to a point that using drones is somehow the moralistic option among many others.
The statement that is often heard and keeps reverberating in the political discourse in the US is that drones limit the death and carnage unlike a full scale war. That should mean that more high value targets must get killed instead of civilians but that’s not the case. Most politically aware people know that almost 90% of the drone targets happened to be civilians. The Intercept published its drone papers revealing how the drone program works and how up to 90% of those killed were intended targets. But President Obama who could be renamed as the drone champion have strongly advocated the case for drone strikes. The Huffington Post carried an article on 25 August 2015 in which President Obama has been quoted as saying, “The terrorists we are after target civilians, and the death toll from their acts of terrorism against Muslims dwarfs any estimate of civilian casualties from drone strikes,”.
In a way this has been the standard policy of the US not just for the past 15 years but much longer than that. An accusation of being a war criminal has to be refuted by showing how inherently evil the other side is and civilians who get to be taken out by the empire tend to meet their maker more swiftly and painlessly without any regret compared to those evil people out there.
One of the chief reasons why the Vietnam war could affect unprecedented opposition from the heart of the empire was witnessing the carnage and death first hand through the pictures that painted a horrible image of how wars waged for the benefit of a select few tend to affect the many. In case of the drone terrorism, many don’t know or never even ventured to know the victims and their horrifying stories not to mention the children who live in fear of death from brought down the skies. Their identities are willfully kept hidden and are simply labelled as “suspects”. Unlike the Vietnamese, these victims do not even get the privilege of recognition. Nor do their families and neighbors get the answers they seek. Their innocence and the dignity of their lives is taken from them simply because they stand unbeknownst in the way of empirical ambitions. Unfortunately, as long as the deafening silence prevails within the heart of the empire, the victims will grow and so will the ones who resort to violence for revenge. As long as war criminals are applauded and benefit from their crimes with no chance of them facing the music, their won’t be a shortage of threats in the foreseeable future.
The Political Crescendo of dissent 
So much to let go, of as I learn. I’d love to read.