Activists to protest drone attacks

WASHINGTON — A few dozen peace activists plan to gather outside Whiteman Air Force Base on Saturday to protest America’s use of weaponized drones to conduct military strikes on far-flung targets in the Middle East and elsewhere.

Vicke Kepling, a Springfield resident and director of the Peace Network of the Ozarks, said many Americans don’t realize how much the U.S. military has come to rely on drone attacks, which she and others say are carried out with little public accountability or oversight from Congress. The demonstration, organized by activists in Kansas City and Springfield, will aim to highlight the legal and moral questions around this kind of warfare in which pilots stationed at Whiteman and other U.S. military bases use remote-controlled drones to drop Hellfire missiles or other weapons on alleged terrorists in Afghanistan, Pakistan and other countries.

“Who is deciding who we are targeting?” she asked. “Many people believe these are illegal actions," Kepling added, noting that Congress has not authorized the use of U.S. military force in Yemen and other places where the Pentagon or CIA has launched attacks.

There’s no question that drones, also known as unmanned or remotely piloted aircraft, have transformed modern warfare. Supporters, including Springfield-area lawmakers, say these weapons provide a super-accurate way to kill America's enemies while minimizing risks to U.S. military personnel. President George W. Bush began the use of armed drones, and President Obama has greatly expanded it, relying on these weapons to kill suspected militants in remote areas of Pakistan, for example, and to target Islamic State terrorist leaders operating in Iraq.

"We have taken out the top levels of leadership in ISIS with a very few civilian casualties,” Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., said this week, referring to the Islamic State by its acronym. “That would never have been possible without drones.”

Whiteman is home of the 20th Reconnaissance Squadron, a unit that includes technicians, administrators and pilots who operate the MQ-1 Predator. An unmanned aerial vehicle used to gather intelligence and conduct deadly strikes, the Predator can carry two Hellfire missiles or other munitions.

McCaskill has drawn attention to the stress that Whiteman’s drone pilots face, noting that they see the same kind of human carnage as traditional combat pilots, but they often do not have access to the same support systems.

McCaskill: Drone warfare taking toll on pilots

A drone pilot could be “sitting down to a meal with his or her family less than two hours after killing Islamic State or Taliban fighters on the other side of the world,” McCaskill wrote in a June 18 letter to Gen. Mark A. Welsh III, the Air Force's chief of staff. “They could be playing with their children shortly after witnessing up close and in graphic detail the effects of a 500-pound bomb or Hellfire missile on a soft target.”

Under pressure to address this issue, the Air Force recently reclassified its drone pilots at Whiteman and other military bases as “attack squadrons,” a designation with greater prestige that could also give those personnel access to more resources.

The protesters on Saturday will be looking for more dramatic action.

“We’re trying to alert the public that there’s a shadow side to this seduction with drones,” said Ron Faust of PeaceWorks, Kansas City. “I don’t think people really realize how extensive the destruction is. A lot of innocent people are being hurt.”

As with traditional military weapons, drone attacks have caused scores of civilian deaths, although precise numbers are difficult to come by. In one high-profile case, a U.S. drone strike in 2013 allegedly killed about a dozen civilians on their way to a wedding in Yemen. Officials in Yemen and Washington said the target of the attack was an al-Qaeda leader and other militants. But the details remain murky to this day.

According to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, a London-based organization that has compiled detailed data on drone strikes, the U.S. has carried out at least 870 drone strikes since 2002. By the bureau's tally, 4,636 to 7,031 people have been killed, including 566 to 1,179 civilians.

Obama recently defended the use of drones and said the U.S. military strikes have become increasingly accurate. "What I can say with great confidence is that our operating procedures are as rigorous as they have ever been and that there is a constant evaluation of precisely what we do," Obama said at an April news conference.

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McCaskill, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, echoed that argument and said opponents of drone strikes “just don’t have the facts.”

“Having been to Whiteman and watched very closely what they do, I think people don’t realize what goes into determining a target and what pinpoint accuracy is involved,” she said. “Drones are much more accurate than traditional ways of trying to take out people that want to do harm to our country.”

McCaskill said the protesters were right on at least one count — that lawmakers in Washington need to debate where and how U.S. military might can be deployed in places like Yemen and Pakistan. But that debate has been stymied in a Congress that so far is stumbling over more basic issues, such as the annual spending bills to keep the government open.

Officials at Whiteman, meanwhile, said they would welcome the protesters and the debate.

“Whiteman Air Force Base supports the rights of all Americans to demonstrate and make their opinions heard,” Sgt. Zachary R. Melin said in an emailed statement to the News-Leader. “Individuals or groups who wish to demonstrate outside the base gates are free to do so in accordance with local laws.”