U.S. drone
operators are inflicting heavy civilian casualties and have developed
an institutional culture callous to the death of children and other
innocents, four former operators said at a press briefing today in
New York.
The
killings, part of the Obama administration’s targeted assassination
program, are aiding terrorist recruitment and thus undermining the
program’s goal of eliminating such fighters, the veterans added.
Drone operators refer to children as “fun-size terrorists” and
liken killing them to “cutting the grass before it grows too long,”
said one of the operators, Michael Haas, a former senior airman in
the Air Force. Haas also described widespread drug and alcohol abuse
and said some operators had flown missions while impaired.
In addition
to Haas, the operators are former Air Force Staff Sergeant Brandon
Bryant along with former senior airmen Cian Westmoreland and Stephen
Lewis. The men have conducted kill missions in many of the major
theaters of the post-9/11 war on terror, including Iraq, Afghanistan
and Pakistan.
“We have
seen the abuse firsthand,” said Bryant, “and we are horrified.”
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