REVIEW: Unmanned: America's Drone Wars

Drone Home - Illustration by John Gomes

How many stories have you heard about drone warfare? And I don't mean stories on the news or government counts of successful strikes, but stories from victims?

Unmanned: America's Drone Wars takes a hard look at drone warfare through the eyes of its victims, a compelling one hour film which gives faces to the families affected by US drones. Director Robert Greenwald shows interviews from family members and predominate figures within Pakistan, who explain what drone strikes have done to their communities.

The film begins with a US veteran describing how modern drone technology can read the licence plate on a car. He explains how when he was recruited to the army, to help pay off his college debt, the recruiter told him he would be just like Q in a James Bond film. He was told, "we kill people and break things." Some of these operators don't even need to leave US soil when controlling drones because the army has a large facility in Nevada where soldiers can kill people across the globe.

In 2011, a conference was held in Islamabad, Pakistan to discuss drones and what the Pakistani people could do to stop them. There were a lot of important figures, reporters and people concerned about drone strikes, including Tariq Aziz, a sixteen-year-old, who was described as a very nice, likable person. He was soon thereafter killed in a drone strike aimed at his car.

This brought up very interesting questions about drone strikes in Pakistan. Tariq was in Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan. He had spoken to reporters and was not in hiding or hard to find by any means, yet the United States government decided to play judge, jury and executioner for a sixteen-year-old boy. Someone they could have easily captured. This kept Tariq from having any kind of defense. How can a person defend their actions, or assumed actions, from a drone? One of the people interviewed in the film came to the conclusion that there was an undercover US agent in the conference who deemed Tariq a threat, or future threat, and declared him an enemy combatant.

But how can the United States government do this?

Pakistan is considered a "no capture zone," which is used to describe an area that is too dangerous to attempt capturing suspected terrorists. So, the US can just bomb them without any rhyme or reason. The perimeters used for signature strikes are based on if the person in question is male and of military age. Apparently, it has been decided that people looking at a screen in Nevada are able to tell if a person in Pakistan is a terrorist.

The US often claims that the strikes are precise and killing high value targets. Unmanned claims that over 98% of people killed are actually not high value targets. Also, the idea that these strikes are precise are debunked by the fact that the US government doesn't actually know how many people have been killed in Pakistan, or they are too afraid to release the actual number of casualties.

Another example of the US's inability to distinguish terrorists from civilians came again in 2011 when a group of Pakistani tribal leaders were killed during a jirga. The jirga was announced and the Pakistani government and military knew in advance of the gathering. Still, the United States hit the meeting with two drones, devastating not only the people at the meeting, but the lives of the entire community. The leaders who were killed were depended on for economic and moral reasons and when they were killed the local communities now believed there was "no where, no one, nothing [is] safe." They now live in constant fear, terrorized by the threat of another drone strike.

The United States government and media spewed out lies about the strike, claiming it was successful against terrorist militants, which was obviously false information. Once again, the US media showed how it mindlessly reports whatever the government gives them without question.

Unmanned explains how easily the drone phenomena can expand. With contracts in the US already in the billions; Boeing with $1.8 billion, Northrop Grumann with $10.9 billion, General Atomics with $6.6 billion, and Raytheon with $648 million, convincing our paid off officials will be difficult enough. It is predicted to become an $80 billion business in the near future.

Just recently, the Rehman family came to the United States to testify to congress that their mother/grandmother was killed by a drone strike in 2011. While the family was at Congress, President Obama was meeting with CEOs of a range of companies including Northrop Grumann and Lockheed Martin (who produces HELLFIRE missiles). We have also started to see drones used within the United States for local surveillance.

But what about other countries?

Drones can already be found in the United Kingdom, China, and Israel. What happens when these countries decide to start killing whoever they deem threatening without just cause, following the United States' lead?

And what about al Qaeda? It was pointed out in the film that the "Taliban doesn't need to recruit suicide bombers. Drone[s] create suicide bomb factories." How can we justify using drones to kill combatants when "we kill one, we create ten." If drones are the way of the future, which seems to be the case, we need to look long and hard at the lack of accountability we currently have. A good example of this is the Times Square Bomber who declared that his intent was to retaliate for drone strikes within Pakistan.

How can we be right to kill his family and friends, yet not expect him to want revenge? Isn't that the reason most American's supported war in the Near East in the first place? How hypocritical can we possibly be?

For a short time, Unmanned: America's Drone Wars will be available for free streaming online. All you need to do is go to their website and follow a simple two-step instruction. I highly encourage you to see it and share it with others. Host a viewing. Show someone who is pro-drone strikes and start a dialogue.

If we continue to kill innocent people without accountability we will continue to create the terrorists we so fear. Which in turn will continue to contribute to this seemingly endless war.