THE House of Commons Defence Committee came out in favour on Monday of continuing massacres of people in Afghanistan, Pakistan and other places by drones being operated from the UK by people who have been recruited into the armed forces after they have proven their proficiency as killers in ‘Call of Duty’-type video games.
From games for thrills, they have graduated to legal murder for thrills, circling above villages for 24 hours at a time, like birds of prey.
They are sponsored by the imperialist powers and now enjoy the support of the House of Commons Defence Committee.
In fact, the House Committee decided that the Ministry of Defence should be more open about using unmanned aerial drones so the public has greater confidence in the operations, and where drone attacks resulted in civilian deaths the public should be told, provided transparency did not jeopardise the continuation of operations.
Transparency would help ‘debunk myths and counter misinformation’, MPs concluded as they spelt out that the UK’s use of killer drones was fully within the law.
The committee reported that the MoD had said it was aware of only one case of a UK drone strike in Afghanistan which had resulted in civilian fatalities. It did not speculate about how many criminal attacks on civilians it had not been told about.
On Monday, Mark Francois, Armed Forces Minister, said: ‘I hope this very positive report helps to dispel some of the frustrating myths often propagated.’
Dealing with the one case where four Afghan civilians and allegedly two insurgents were killed in a March 2011 attack on a pair of pick-up trucks allegedly carrying explosives, the committee found that ‘the details of such incidents should be made public’.
Although the MoD had carried out an investigation into the incident, the committee said it should accept the recommendation of the UN special rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism, Ben Emmerson QC, that details of such incidents should be made public.
This was again accompanied by the caveat that, ‘We recognise that this is not a simple and straightforward request, as to do so could seriously jeopardise continuing operations.
‘Nonetheless, we recommend that, to the extent that it is operationally secure to do so, following an event which has resulted in confirmed civilian casualties, the MoD should seek to publish details about the incident and any lessons learned from the review process.’
The Commons Committee has given the MoD a license to continue saying nothing!
It added of the men and women getting their kicks by obliterating men, women and children from the safety of an office 3,000 miles away from the scene of the crime – ‘Despite being remote from the battle space they exhibited a strong sense of connection to the life and death decisions they are sometimes required to take.’
This nonsense is hiding the fact that the MoD is making use of young people who up till then had been getting their thrills in their video world, and are now getting their thrills from carrying out kills from long distance.
In fact a very grateful Armed Forces Minister Mark Francois, paid homage to the House of Commons Committee.
He said it was ‘very welcome’ that the committee had recognised publicly the “value and effectiveness” of UK drones, ‘and that operations comply fully with international law’.
He continued: ‘I am particularly pleased to note the committee’s recognition of the highly skilled personnel who operate this equipment, supporting and protecting our ground troops, our allies and Afghan civilians on a daily basis.’
In fact, the House of Commons Committee and the MOD have given their public support to war crimes and war criminals, who are trained to slaughter men, women and children and kill off entire communities with not the slightest risk to themselves.
Servicemen and women should refuse to carry out these duties, while the trade unions must demand that this reality video game of ‘mass murder from afar’ is halted at once, and that those responsible are surrendered to the War Crimes Tribunal in the Hague to stand trial for their crimes.
