By Ellen Teague Independent catholic news The increasing using of drones – armed unmanned aerial vehicles - in modern hi-tech warfare was challenged at seminar in London on 12 July organised by Pax Christi.
Around 30 participants - representing Christian CND, the Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales International Department, the Anglican Pacifist Fellowship, Quaker Peace and Social Witness, the Movement for the Abolition of War and others – heard speaker Chris Cole, the Catholic Director of Drone Wars UK and author of Drone Wars Briefing, suggest they encourage a 'Playstation mentality' where killing is simply watching the movement of figures or vehicles on the ground on a screen, pushing a button and seeing them engulfed in an explosion plume.
The UK has five armed ‘Reaper’ drones in service at Kandahar airport in Afghanistan, but they are controlled at height by US pilots at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada.
“There have been 280 drone strikes in Afganistan since 2008, including targeted assassinations” said Chris Cole, and he condemned the “drone war era” for “making military intervention more likely”. There is a huge margin of error, and civilian casualties are mounting in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen, although exact figures are impossible to ascertain.
Mary Dobbing, a researcher on Israel and unmanned warfare, reported that Israel is striking Gaza with drones most weeks, although they won’t admit it. She would like an embargo on all arms trading with Israel, which is a major exporter of arms.
representative of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign expressed concern that people in the occupied territories are reduced simply to “blobs on a screen” with drone warfare.
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