From Democracy Now | Original Article Former Air Force pilot Brandon Bryant is one of the the first U.S. drone operators to speak out against President Obama’s global assassination program. Bryant served as a sensor operator for the Predator program from 2007 to 2011, manning the camera on the unmanned aerial vehicles that carried out […]
From Democracy Now Has the U.S. drone war “fueled the feelings of hatred that ignited terrorism and groups like ISIS“? That’s the conclusion of four former Air Force servicemembers who are speaking out together for the first time. They’ve issued a letter to President Obama warning the U.S. drone program is one of the most […]
By Ed Pilkington and Ewen MacAskill From Information Clearinghouse Watch trailer of new documentary here. Four former service members – including three sensor operators – issue plea to rethink current airstrike strategy that has ‘fueled feelings of hatred’ toward US Four former US air force service members, with more than 20 years of experience between […]
By William M. Arkin and Alexa O’Brien From Vice News An information and intelligence shift has emerged in America’s national security state over the last two decades, and that change has been reflected in the country’s educational institutions as they have become increasingly tied to the military, intelligence, and law enforcement worlds. This is why VICE […]
By Rory Fanning From The Guardian On Tuesday, the United States should be celebrating its 95th Armistice Day, pausing as a nation to think about the terrible costs of war – including the loss of so many lives. Unfortunately, we replaced it with a very different holiday. On 1 June 1954, less than a year […]
In what is probably a first, the Air Force Times this week is publishing a controversial advertisement from 54 U.S. military veterans and veterans organizations urging Air Force drone operators and other military personnel to refuse their orders…and not fly drone surveillance/attack missions. Air Force Times is a weekly newspaper, owned by Tegna Inc., with […]
By Mike Hastie Photo by Mike Hastie: This picture of a small boy playing with toy soldiers was taken at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Portland, Oregon. It was Memorial Day in 2003, two months after the U.S. started bombing Baghdad. From World Can’t Wait|Original Article You join the U.S. military thinking […]
Hope you have had a good and restful summer and that those of you who are educators and students are all set for a great 2015-16 academic year! Many students will be returning with an increased consciousness of the systemic injustices towards people of color in this country. That awareness, while important in its own right, […]
From Motherboard | Original Article Watch the video here: http://motherboard.vice.com/read/a-former-drone-pilots-guilt-kept-him-awake-at-night One of the supposed advantages to the United States’ drone program is that by distancing pilots from their targets, the psychic scars of killing don’t form so easily. But even separated by thousands of miles and a computer screen, former drone pilot Brandon Bryant felt […]
By Bruce Dancis From The Sacramento Bee | Original Article President Lyndon B. Johnson made the fateful decision early in 1965 to expand the U.S. role in the Vietnam War. First he ordered the bombing of North Vietnam. Later in the year Johnson sent more than 180,000 American ground troops to South Vietnam. This escalation […]
By CJ Hinke From WorldBeyondWar | Original Article More chapers from CJ Hinke’s book are available on WorldBeyondWar. Excerpted from Free Radicals: War Resisters in Prison by CJ Hinke, forthcoming from Trine-Day in 2016. There are as many reasons to desert military service as there are deserters. All countries’ militaries like to snatch young men […]
By Pat Elder From U.S. Catholic During the Second Battle of Fallujah in November 2004, 1st Lt. Jesse A. Grapes saved the lives of three wounded marines in his platoon by entering a burning house, where he encountered the enemy soldier who had been firing at his troops. Six years later Grapes was named headmaster […]
