Rising Hegemon
The family of a 67-year-old midwife from a remote village in North Waziristan told lawmakers on Tuesday about her death and the "CIA drone" they say was responsible. Their harrowing accounts marked the first time Congress had ever heard from civilian victims of an alleged US drone strike.' She was apparently one of the 900 or so civilians killed in drone attacks. So we are consistently killing civilians by the hundreds using drones. You'd think this would be a big story. You'd be wrong, at least in the country responsible for the killing.
The hearing was attended by only five members of Congress, and Grayson said such low numbers of lawmakers at hearings were not unusual. Those attending were all Democrats: Rush Holt of New Jersey, Jan Schakowsky of Illinois, John Conyers of Michigan, Rick Nolan of Minnesota, and Grayson, the Florida Democrat responsible for inviting the family to Washington and for holding the hearing.Inspiring.
[cross-posted at Firedoglake]
2 comments:
Grayson, a fierce critic of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan told the hearing: “Invading from the skies is no different from invading on the grounds. We should never accept that children and loved ones are acceptable collateral damage.” Was there any other human activity, he asked “where 10-30% of the dead are innocent?”
War is like that. For wars within living memory, a civilian casualty ratio of 10-30% is quite low. And that blood on our hands is supposed to be worth it, because of the righteousness of our cause.
We’re supposed to do this forever, I guess.
maybe we should just invade w/ wholesale bombing.
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