CSNbbs

Straight from the mouths of former drone operators.

They only hate us for our freedoms.

Quote: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, further stating that some operators had flown missions while impaired.

Quote:At the press conference, Bryant said the killing of civilians by drone is exacerbating the problem of terrorism. “We kill four and create 10 [militants],” Bryant said. “If you kill someone’s father, uncle or brother who had nothing to do with anything, their families are going to want revenge.”

Quote:The deaths of children and other non-combatants in strikes was rationalized by many drone operators, Haas said. As a flight instructor, Haas claimed to have been non-judicially reprimanded by his superiors for failing a student who had expressed “bloodlust,” an overwhelming eagerness to kill.

Haas also described widespread alcohol and drug abuse among drone pilots. Drone operators, he said, would frequently get intoxicated using bath salts and synthetic marijuana to avoid possible drug testing and in an effort to “bend that reality and try to picture yourself not being there.” Haas said that he knew at least a half-dozen people in his unit who were using bath salts and that drug use had “impaired” them during missions.

https://theintercept.com/2015/11/19/form...n-program/

If you're going to put so much stock into a few anecdotal accounts in a ridiculously slanted nonsensical article also take this into account:

I was a part of these operations in Afghanistan in 2005-06.

There was no drug or alcohol abuse. The pilots were not bloodthirsty. Bath salts....I mean really? This is typical nonsense from a few rogue veterans who signed up after 9/11 yet suddenly became conscientious objectors when actually sent to fight.

In truth, the pilots DO NOT make the decision to or not to fire upon targets.....EVER. They take orders as to where to go and when to fire. They're opreators and nothing more. Such a decision to fire upon targets has to go through about 3 or 4 different channels before the proverbial trigger is pulled. For example, once we had a guy....plain as day with an RPG on a hill by himself with US helicopters in the vicinity and we never fired on him in any capacity. Although it seemed obvious that the guy was a prime candidate for exploding into a million pieces, we reported what we saw and it was ultimately decided too much of a waste of assets to take out one guy. And there was no threat to civilians whatsoever.

I was there for a year and participated in I don't know how many Predator missions and I can guarantee you that not a single civilian was targeted. In fact, the process to receive authorization to fire inside a village (thus immensely increasing the chances at hitting civilians) virtually requires an act of Congress unless an HVT (ex. Jihadi John) was involved.....which was very infrequent and still required going through the proper channels.

Now, were we satisfied when our Pred coordinated with an AC-130 to take out an entire formation of Hajis wielding AK-47's and RPGs? Yes, we were. Not sure that qualifies us as bloothirsty. It's a ******* war, bro.

None of that has the ring of truth about it.