A Rohingyan friend recently told me that drones were used against his people in Arkine State in Bangladesh in three ways, to produce:

1. Fear
2. Invasion of Privacy
3. Killing

Here is a show Andy has put together about Drones and the fear of blue skies

Paradigm Shift June 4, 2021 Friday – 12:00 – 1:00 PM

Welcome to the Paradigm Shift on FM 102.1 4ZZZ Fridays at noon. We challenge the assumptions of our current society, to resist oppression …

This week we hear from Alex Edney-Browne about drone warfare. Alex went to Afghanistan to interview people who had lived through drone strikes; and also studied the role of drones in the US wars, and Australia’s involvement through the Pine Gap base. Alex queries the accuracy of drone technology. She discusses the number of civilian casualties in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia. Estimates by the Obama administration say that total civilian casualties are between 64 and 116.

Independent journalists estimate 1,147 civilian deaths.

Listen also at http://4zzz.org.au/program/paradigm-shift

Pine Gap – Central Australia

Guilt by Association
Drone attacks depend upon signals intelligence of daily routes of their targets. Pine Gap processes this intelligence.

Many taxi drivers get killed by drones simply because they are on the road dealing with different people (militants) and are conspicuous. https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F289639625&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&visual=true&show_comments=true&color=false&show_user=true&show_reposts=false

Alex talked about ‘rogue states’ getting the technology. Andy gives an example of IS (Daesh) using a drone in Iraq recently. She mentions Iran, Russia and Nth Korea (but this depends on your political perspective).

Proxy wars
Alex questions the ethics of USA’s undeclared wars on Somalia, Pakistan and Yemen.

Human fallibility
Drones are an attempt to rule out the humanity of people required to kill others when there are innocent children nearby.

Playlist
Anomie – Predator drones over Yemen
Sole and DJ Pain – National bird
Killing Joke – Seeing red
Anohni – Drone bomb me
Common Enemy – Satellite regime
Franz James – Drone lament

Reference
https://www.thenation.com/article/the-most-important-us-air-force-base-youve-never-heard-of/