Peace activists to rally Monday outside Creech Air Force Base: |
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT Peace activists to rally Monday outside Creech Air Force Base: Will call for end to U.S. drone attacks in Afghanistan, Pakistan WHAT: CODEPINK and others rally to "Ground the Drones!" WHEN: 6:30 to 8 a.m. Monday, July 13 WHERE: Outside Creech Air Force Base (35 miles NW of Las Vegas) INDIAN SPRINGS, NV -- At the gates of the Creech Air Force Base here, where American soldiers inside use advanced technology to aim and fire pilotless drones at human targets thousands of miles away in Afghanistan or Pakistan, peace activists from several organizations will rally to stop the use of these drones, violations of international law and fuel for Taliban and Al Qaeda. "These are war crimes being committed from our own backyards," said rally participant Father Louis Vitale, a Franciscan friar for 49 years of Oakland, CA, a well-known peace activist. "It's unbelievable that from thousands of miles away, we're dropping bombs on people's houses." The demonstrators, which also includes the pink-clad women of CODEPINK, the Nevada Desert Experience and more, will also explain that drones are largely inefficient -- the number of militants killed is unjustly outweighed by civilians killed. David Kilcullen, a former top adviser to U.S. Army General David Petraeus, recently testified to the House Armed Services Committee that the rate of civilian deaths do not justify the drones. Since 2006, drone attacks killed 14 Al-Qaeda leaders but also killed about 700 civilians, a 50:1 ratio of innocent victims to targeted enemies. "Here in the beauty of the desert, it's even more painful to know that so much death and destruction is set into motion here," said Janet Weil of CODEPINK. "Even just in the past few days, there's reports of a terrible loss of life. The sheer number of people who've died in Afghanistan and Iraq is very much accelerating, largely from our drones." Drone attacks anger the Pakistani and Afghan populations against the U.S. efforts, fuel Al Qaeda and the Taliban and prompt further distrust in their own governments' actions. About 82 percent of Pakistanis consider the U.S. drone attacks on militant camps in Pakistan as unjustified, and 69 percent have an unfavorable view of the U.S. government, according to a July poll by the WorldPublicOpinion.com. Meanwhile, Taliban and Al Qaeda has risen, increasing violence and leading to a never-ending battle. Meanwhile, the U.S. soldiers who aim and fire these drones experience psychological damage from their work. After driving to the base from their homes in Los Vegas, they take a 12-hour shift of aiming and firing drones using technology much like a video game -- with a control stick and a screen that shows the targets thousands of miles away, before and after they are struck. Vitale, who has spoken at length with military chaplains and other commanders, said these men are mostly 19 and have little combat experience. "The only preparation for something like this is time in the arcade, and the arcade is a game to see how many people you can kill," Vitale said. "Another commander told me that he's afraid they feel it's just another game, it's an arcade. But then they realize the real damage they're doing." The demonstrators will also call on Congress to stop spending American tax dollars on drones and other military efforts in Afghanistan and Pakistan but on humanitarian aid and diplomacy. For more information, please call Janet Weil, Bay Area CODEPINK coordinator, at 925-212-7477 or Jean Stevens, CODEPINK national media coordinator, at 508-769-2138. |
