On the night of February 21, 2010, a group of families driving a convoy of vehicles through the valleys of Uruzgan Province, Afghanistan, came into the sights of a Predator drone crew operating out of Creech Air Force Base in Nevada.
“That truck would make a beautiful target,” one of the operators says. The crew analyzes the convoy, debating whether children are present. “I really doubt that child call, man. I really fucking hate that shit.”
Under the watchful gaze of the drone crew, the families disembark from the convoy, stopping to pray at the side of the road. After a brief pause, they get back in their cars and continue their journey, still unaware that they are being stalked from above.
Members of the drone crew, satisfied they have a legitimate target in their sights, make the necessary preparations to use force.
As the cars trundle down the road, they open fire.
“And … oh … there it goes!” one of the pilots exclaims. The first car in the convoy, struck by a missile, disappears in a giant cloud of dust. Moments later, a second car explodes. People run out of the remaining vehicle, waving at the aircraft above to stop firing. They brandish pieces of cloth at the sky to try and indicate they are non-combatants. A woman can be seen holding a child.
“I don’t know about this,” one of the operators says. “This is weird.”
An Afghan survivor of a U.S. airstrike on civilians sits with his son, in Sonia Kennebeck’s “National Bird.”
Photo: Torsten Lapp/Courtesy of FilmRise
The Uruzgan drone strike and the events surrounding it form much of the basis of “National Bird,” an extraordinary new documentary about the U.S. drone program. The film, which opened Friday in Los Angeles, profiles the lives of former drone operators, as well as victims of the program, including the survivors of the Uruzgan attack. In doing so, it provides a rare glimpse into the lives of those affected by the U.S. military’s covert global assassination program, as well as the consequences facing those who speak out about it.
“I wanted to make a film on the drone war and the people directly impacted: those operating the program and those impacted in countries where drone strikes are being carried out,” said Sonia Kennebeck, the producer and director of “National Bird.” “We took many risks to make this film, because we felt there is a real need for transparency in these programs.”
The film profiles three Americans who took part in the drone program but later experienced a crisis of conscience.
“This is not just one person sitting there with a joystick moving around a plane that’s around the world, its like borders don’t matter anymore. There’s a huge system that is around the world and that can suck up endless data,” says Lisa, a former technical sergeant on drone surveillance systems, who, like all the subjects in “National Bird,” is identified only by her first name.
In the film, Lisa shows a commendation she received for helping identify over 121,000 “insurgent targets” over a two-year period, as part of military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. “That is 121,000 lives affected by technology that we control. How many years have we been at war now?”
The film, beautifully constructed, intersperses scenes from the lives of drone operators living in small American towns with scenes from Afghanistan showing those who have been targeted by strikes.
The subjects in the film are cautious in their descriptions of their activities, citing a pervasive fear that they will be charged under the Espionage Act for their whistleblowing. And during the making of the film, a drone operator named Daniel, a former NSA operative at Fort Meade, has his house raided by the FBI and is informed that he is under investigation for speaking out about the program.
The Obama administration has been notorious for using that law to prosecute individuals speaking out about the covert warfare programs. Indeed, more individuals have been prosecuted under the Espionage Act by Obama than under all previous administrations combined. This crackdown makes the acts of whistleblowing documented in “National Bird” even more courageous.
“I can say the drone program is wrong because I don’t know how many people I’ve killed,” Heather, a drone operator now suffering from PTSD, says in the film. Having lost several friends in the program to suicide, she says she is tormented by her role in drone strikes that she believes killed and maimed civilians. She is also consumed with fear that she will soon be targeted for speaking out. “If someone comes to my house and puts a bag over my head and hauls me away, what was the point in anything I did?”
Some of the most moving scenes in the film are shot in Afghanistan, where the filmmakers traveled to meet victims of the program. “When your body is intact, your mind is different. You are content,” says one man who was wounded in the Uruzgan attack. “But the moment you are wounded, your soul gets damaged. When your leg is torn off, and your gait slows, it also burdens your spirit.”
“Sometimes I am so sad, my heart wants to explode,” the man says, before breaking down silently in tears.
As the Obama administration prepares to hand off its vast, opaque institutions of surveillance and covert warfare to Donald Trump, many have begun to worry anew about these powers. The new president-elect and his cabinet will have unprecedented power to conduct secret wars and assassinations around the globe, thanks in part to programs bequeathed to him by his liberal predecessor. The aggressive posture that Obama took toward whistleblowers also sets a precedent for Trump to step up attacks against those inside the government who dare to shed light on such programs.
“I made this film in part to highlight the repercussions of future governments holding these powers, but I don’t think many people realize how bad things already are under Obama,” says Kennebeck. “The whistleblowers in the film took great risks, because they felt that people need to know what is happening inside the drone program.”
“But, over the course of our shooting, the film ended up being as much about the consequences of whistleblowing as it did about the drone program itself.”
Top photo: Lisa, a whistleblower and former technical sergeant on drone surveillance systems, travels to Afghanistan in Sonia Kennbeck’s “National Bird.”
Obama trumped Bush in death by drone. If history is any indication, Trump will continue to be complicit in the shadow state. Any protest by Democrats will be ineffectual and hypocritical in light of their lack of protest of the dark doings of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate. He sure took the prize for eight years of hypocrisy. What will Trump be allowed to do? Only the shadow state knows.
Excellent comment, thanks.
What on EARTH makes you think that the administration and others directly responsible for the drone program watch this sort of documentary or read the independent press? If they did, this would stop. If their families did, it would stop.
On the other hand, maybe you’re right to think that they are just as well informed as any ordinary Intercept reader/Pacifica/TRNN etc. subscriber. I hope not, because in that case they are just plain evil and you’re wasting your time.
Sometimes just screaming is something :/
Can someone do a story on why The Donald uses orange color on his face, and why he leaves out the eye area making him look weird. Surely he can get a makeup professional.
Come’on. Get real. Who cares.
Ponder something more important.
What a relevant topic. I’m sure The Intercept has its best people on it right now, since the mainstream media and its official sources are too busy covering it up or ignoring it.
Doubtful whether the Donald’s new cabinet will reign in this sort of thing. One would think we make many enemies with these targeted killings by drone and psychologically damage all those under the flight path of these machines.
One has to ask why are we there in Afghanistan after a decade and a half ? In a Democracy we get to have questions answered in the full light of day do we not ? Covert war is war by any other name and still needs Congessional declaration/approval, right ? Otherwise we are like any other totalitarian state with no oversight or accountability to the People. Votes do matter still I hope.
Well, I can think of two things that keep us there. One Conoco Phillps, is participating in a joint venture with other fossil fuel companies building a pipeline from the Caspian Sea Area to run through Afghanistan, and two, many, many precious metals to be mined in that country. Follow our hegemony and you’ll find deposits of diminishing precious metals and oil worldwide. Forget about the bogus “war on terror”.
And #3…it feeds the war machine thus keeping those supplying said machine rolling in $.
Precious metals. Pipeline. What about the poppies/opium?
a cat will mind it’s kittens and when one gets out of line, momma cat will swat kitty and immediately afterward begin licking kitty with love an affection. NOTICE THE TIMEFRAME.
Timeframes matter.
shit causes pain. same shit over time causes stress. same shit over generations mutates the entire psyche from birth and the entire social framework and agenda. Example, Israel.
think you’ve seen everything yet?
Very true. Yea Four thousand years of attacking people, stealing their lands, breaking up their families relentlessly to distract does change those people.
One quibble- The article states that Obama is a liberal. Not true.
True. He’s a neoliberal militarist/imperialist, a corporatist warmonger.
Bit of a dickhead, really.
Becoming a clintonmusketeer brought out the nasty.
God help us if terrorists get hold of drone technology that they can use against us in the US. The US government is busy sharing drone technology with Amazon and other private businesses. What is to prevent terrorists from getting hold and perfecting drone technology?
They already have, technically. ISIS used a drone fitted with an IED against Kurdish and French troops.
(http://www.popsci.com/booby-trapped-isis-drone-kills-kurdish-soldiers-french-commandos)
However, if you mean the possibility of terrorists using drones the way the US does (i.e. Reaper drones, missiles, bombs, control stations, satellites, etc.), that seems a bit out there.
I saw on World News that ISIS already has them.
Hammer the point home in a very poingnant story https://mehwritings.wordpress.com/2012/06/25/drone-a-short-story/
Let’s call these folks what they are, death squad members. Just as soldiers give up that title when they participate in assassination and terrorizing civilians, so to do drone operators.
That’s why they grab ‘um young and stpd
The drone operator is in a war crime conundrum … following WII, the US insisted grunt German soldiers were to be hung for following orders. I suppose the German soldiers could have chosen to be hung by their own for disobeying orders. So it goes for the drone operator, be hung for war crimes or be hung by your own for whistleblowing!
Clothes are hung; people are hanged.
Yes, but people are hanged, drapes and laundry are hung.
Some men are hung, a few quite well in fact.
You read that somewhere, didn’t you, Maisie?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Assured of your experience in such matters, but not by the neck!
“Some men are hung, a few quite well in fact.”
And some women have huge vaginas. Your point?
mr. obama is not aware of this
he does not want to become aware of this
because if he does, he will have to RECONCILE it
he does not want to have to do that
Its the same pattern of lies and deceit that the US government told during Vietnam, or Iraq, that are being repeated all over again. It never ends with this lot. It is as if the US government is made up of pathological liars and sociopaths who don’t care about others unless they are European or something. And considering that Trump is now the POTUS, a real sociopath is now in the driving seat. Good luck, America. You are going to need it.
The previous ones were not real psychopaths? They were only pretend psychopaths?
“……..Its the same pattern of lies and deceit that the US government told during Vietnam, or Iraq, that are being repeated all over again. …….”
Really, what deceit?
It never ends with this lot.
It never ends with this lot.
It never ends with this lot.
It never ends with this lot.
It never ends with this lot.
This program exposes the silliness of people wringing their hands over a ‘fascist government’. We already have one, led by Barack Obama, whose smooth talk and pleasant voice have led people to believe he is a liberal. Trump will merely be the noisier version of fascism.
“Turns out I’m really good at killing people. Didn’t know that was gonna be a strong suit of mine.”
Dear Leader Obama
Terror Tuesday
Terror tuesday, Weeping wenesday, Tragic thursday, Frightening friday, Slaughter saturday, Strafed sunday, Murder monday?
a picture of the times
Yes, an evil infinity calendar. When does it end?
What I fail to understand is why the US liberal media does not put this statement to Barack Obama at every press conference and at every public event he is at.
The press should be asking him every day, ” so how is the killing going, Mr President.
asking the vichey to censor wmd?
The Media has bought into the GlobalStrategic Plan of controlling the World, or a version of imperialism in the new 21st cent lingo.
Afghanistan has nothing to do with the punishment we bear down upon it, nothing at all. It is only used as an Example of Whatwillhappentoyouifyoucrossus!
Someone in Boston or SanBerdoo is going to do more damage to us.
But it serves a global example– we will ignore any borders or anything, if you do not do what we want.
Hell, we would not do that to someone who can actually do us damage.
The logic is there, but not obvious.
The Media has to be a tool or they are unemployed. They also like the Fluff.
The people who participate in this, if as described, are no better than the guards in Nazi death camps were. There is all this angst about Trump, who has yet to take power, while supposedly the person ultimately responsible for these immoral acts remains unmoved, the morally placid Nobel Peace Prize winner.
The administration, who did the lion’s work on establishing and settling the use of unmanned aircraft to kill innocent people without due process, was the Cheney administration. Not to put too much of a fine point on it, the Obama Administration simply continued the practice.
I personally know two “operators” who quit over the use of the “drones”.After talking with them, they are in their own private hell, one started out as a foot soldier in Afghanistan, who had to listen to the screams of native boys and girls subject to same religious fanaticism espoused by Pence as practiced by the Taliban several times.
Americans are actual freaks thinking they are different from people who use dried leaves for toilet paper.
Obama didn’t simply continue murder by drone. He indulged in it.
Yes indeed. And greased the wheels, and streamlined the process and made it good and easy. Now he has the unutterable gall to “worry” that his kill machine will fall into “irresponsible” hands
Obama administration immediately began conducting many, many more drone operations and strikes than the Bush administration ever did, by far. And at the link you’ll find a lot more information about how the Obama administration has conducted itself with the use of drones.
https://theintercept.com/drone-papers/
For everyone that quit there is likely another who stayed that relishes this video game and think it enhanced by real killing being involved. The military does not want people that are bothered by their conscience.
exactly
Jesus was not a christian
Jesus did not preach christianity
early Americans interpretted this as freedom of religion
what Jesus did preach was freedom “from” religion
J taught what the 16+ other wise crucified saviors taught, that you just do what your are supposed to do, then you do not have to get chased around or avoid the penalty of the law.
Yea, nobody likes the laws, who wants to drive 75mph? But it does save lives and avoids a lot of death and misery.
One crucial difference, though. The guards at the death camps were complicit in war crimes, i.e. the intentional, deliberate murder of civilians. If the crew of an armed drone is Afghanistan (a country where the US is officially at war) is “no better” than death-camp guards, then every single American military servicemember in Afghanistan is also no better, according to your argument.
The strikes discussed above were conducted in Afghanistan, a country where the US is officially at war. As far as the strikes in Yemen, and Pakistan, and Somalia are concerned, the legal complications are much more apparent there.
Is the US at war with Afghanistan? Gosh, I didn’t know that.
The USA isn’t at war with Afghanistan. In fact, technically, the us hasn’t been at war since WW2.
So prison guards…
The US is at war IN Afghanistan. But they’re somehow still not at war? Sure, go with that.
parsing
splitting hairs
rationale
bad soil bears bad fruit
What, so the US ISN’T at war in Afghanistan?
not you, the US warmakers who parse the rationale ways.
i will be aware of my perspective next time
thanks
Mr. Hussain
You would think by reading this story that outside of drones flying overhead and picking out civilian targets, Afghanistan has been at peace for the past 100 years and more closely resembled Sweden than a home for the former ruling Islamic extremists/terrorists. The Taliban were responsible for 70% of the civilian deaths in 2015 in their efforts to regain power. The Taliban kill civilians principally using IEDs, an indiscriminate killer. In contrast, according to the UN, NATO accounted for only 2% of the civilian deaths in Afghanistan during the same time period. Not only did the Taliban protect the mass murderer Bin Laden after 911, but they provided a safe haven for Bin Laden to train terrorists for murdering civilians all over the world before 911. Protecting the mass murderer of 3000 innocent civilians is likely to provoke a war. This article is another attempt by the Intercept to simplify a complex civil conflict involving Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, Islamic terrorists and the US.
Afghanistan is a war zone. It cannot be simplified to a single drone attack for convenience. The Taliban relocate to Pakistan during the winter months to plan spring offensives in Afghanistan that target and kill civilians. Pakistan provides a safe haven for the Taliban (for geopolitical reasons) – so they are responsible for far more civilian deaths than the US. Drones are just one weapon used by the US military to disrupt Taliban planning and training in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Drones are employed to limit civilian casualties. Of course, killing civilians is wrong, but unavoidable in most circumstances. In a war zone, civilians are going to die. The US and the Taliban use an array of weapons to conduct war – all of which kill civilians.
If the US stopped using drones in Afghanistan today, this would not save 99% of the civilian casualties in Afghanistan. Drone warfare does not occur in a vacuum, but as part of an overall effort to prevent the brutal Taliban from regaining power. The anti-war message of the Intercept needs to include some context to the conflict.
One of the 1st things needed is to remove the DurandLine– no one in the region asked for it.It did not belong to those who did it.
2nd, is we really do not care about in-house casualities– at some point it will work itself out, on its own.
3rd, we do not accomplish anything, by saying that we might as well kill people bc they might get killed anyway by someone else. Utter speculation garbage. Once again, not ours.
4th, if you want a secure country, you secure what you can control within your borders. wtf are we trying to fool?
parsing evil is an attempt to defend the indefensible.
the taliban offered to hand bin laden over to a neutral country, twice; but the war mongers in the bush administration were thirsty for blood.
afghanistan is a war crime prosecuted by war criminals.
america has a legacy of death around the world. we are roundly hated and rightly so.
end all wars now.
hope for forgiveness.
Actually, the Taliban refused to hand over bin Laden to the US. The CIA station in Islamabad did make contact with one of the Taliban’s people about turnign over bin Laden; the only response they got was one of their mullahs saysing that it was an “interesting” idea that they would “pass on.” Obviously, Mullah Omar was not to keen on the idea.
At least try to the get your facts straight.
When they go low, we go high!
Need to respect “Sovereign” . Period. WE are rather stupid in believing that people who are nearly indigent, probably not educated beyond the 6thgrade, do not speak english, do not have a passport, etc, are going to get on a plane, come over here, infiltrate and do us damage. Really if this is the best the Pentagon can come up with — you’ll are so desperate and sick in the head.
3 points need emphasizing here.
#1. The quote,
“Its like borders don’t matter anymore”
is very significant because it is not “like” borders don’t matter.
The fact is that corporate capital is violently removing all barriers
to profits and the use of patriotism is the preferred method of
deception. The faking U$A uses the notion that it has a constitution
while it continues to violate that same constitution and any
treaties it had previously pretended to support.
There is no United States of America.
That pretense is only a gimmick which is used to expand private
corporate power by whatever means they find profitable.
#2. “Liberal” Obama is the same as “conservative” Bush or Trump.
These are the two main disguises of fascism in the faking U$A.
#3. There is no reason to believe that attacking whistle-blowers,
murdering innocent people by drone, or any other kinds of attacks
launched by the corporate owned pretense of a state and its
“allies” are separate corruptions. Private corporate imperialism
is the insidious religion driving the perversity and the democrats
and republicans are its chief acolytes and their actions are
primarily about predatory domination whether in Peoria or
in the Punjab.
Spot fucking ON. Anybody who objects to this machine is merely regarded as an obstruction to be removed by ANY means. Borders be damned.
Yes.
Private corporate imperialism is the insidious religion driving the perversity…
spot on.
Personal power is the commodity that persons are being robbed of. Once that is 100% gone, the remainder is fitting in or suffering. Once the “fitter inners” become dis-satisfied and-or the “no room for fitter inners” scenario is playing out (which is in effect now), the deprivation of self-destiny may be countered by an overwhelming force in opposition.
Obama will be remembered for really deserving his Nobel peace prize….
Yeah. The Alfred Nobel Peace Prize for Wishful Thinking.
Disgusting murderers. I cannot welcome Americans into my life any more. You disgust me. All of you. Even you at The Intercept. Jon Schwarz dribbling like a lunatic that Obama can maybe save the day from Trump. And the people earnestly helping “The Veterans” like they are returning heroes betrayed by the State – they are the murderers tainted with death, for without them “the State” has no dumb hand to do its dirty work.
You have moved your reality so far from gentle kindness and you cower before the monsters that you created with your own elitism and greed and bigotry. Words fail me. It is just disgust now. And no little hatred. Even Chomsky cannot bring himself to admit how deeply this disturbing evil goes to the heart of America.
I hope your minds unravel in the sheer terror that you have created and brought upon yourselves worse than any of us will ever feel, because though we may feel dread, we feel no guilt or fear of our own, of the devils amongst us because we still recognise good and bad and you have long lost that sense.
The Wendigo ate your souls and the ghosts of the murdered native peoples curse you with madness. And so it goes.
Saying that all Americans are like this, is like saying that all Muslims are terrorists.
Holocaust denial by guards. Pretty sick.
They (our government and the MSM) hid most of this drone program from most US citizens for close to 15 years.
No excuse though. Both the foreign press and countless international studies covered these and related issues in great detail during that same period.
The Ugly American
Not all of us support the horrific cesspools that are the Democrat and Republican Parties; some of us actually want to see those government officials responsible in Washington DC brought before The Hague and made to answer for their crimes.
Hundreds of thousands of people (including myself) turned that wish into a concrete expression by voting Green in 2012 and 2016. It is apparent from your comment that you haven’t heard of the US Green Party, or you wouldn’t be condemning the entire country. Even God of the Old Testament and the Torah was willing to spare Sodom and Gomorrah if ten good people were to be found in it. Those of us I mentioned earlier are trying to stop our country’s modern day version.
http://www.gp.org
to do so you must declare or re-declare the laws
this may sound nutsy but the law you declare is a prescription
at one time the DOI and Constitution were declared
doesnt have to be formal, just ascribed
They can answer for their crimes under numerous US laws, no need to ring the Hague into it at all. (Heck, US law is HARSHER on torture and truth serums than most international agreements, now if only it was enforced.)
When will we stop using the terms “shoot”, “shot”, and “shooting” interchangeably with weapons that use projectiles to kill or destroy, and devices that capture and record images? Please just say or write “record”, “recorded”, and “recording” which is the accurate general term (not taping or filming unless the recording medium of the device is actually photochemical film or magnetic tape which is now relatively rare).
I had read a tweet once calling drones the national bird of Pakistan. But drones are equally the national bird of the USA.
speechless
Can you think of a better example of the analogy of wolf in sheep’s clothing being able to do even more damage than the wolf we know to be a wolf as it relates to Obama’s persecution of whistle blowers and drone murders?
Obama said “We turn Lady Liberty’s light to the world, and widen our circle of concern to say that all God’s children are worthy of our compassion and care”, this is especially hypocritical when you put it in context with the end of the video Manning released, which shows the helicopters firing into the van with children in it, which came to take those shot up to medical attention, so much for “God’s children are worthy of our compassion and care”.
Watch it again to remind you of how they keep the truth from us:
https://collateralmurder.wikileaks.org/
Save it to show your children and grandchildren before some war and fear monger gives their all to convince them they should go and fight for what we know is only to satisfy the profit, power, and greed motives of the most amoral.
You’d be surprised how much compassion and care can be packed into the nosecone of a Hellfire missile. They make very efficient use of space.
Damned if you do and damned if you don’t – a sanitized war… Forgotten is the TRUTH. It gets in the way – it destroys our country. Innocent until proven guilty? Kill them first and clean up afterwards – and the political expediency of deniability… How fast can you run?? and where can you hide?? WE have been there for over a decade…. BASED ON LIES
George H.W. Bush said “WE will PREVAIL” – – – repeated by –
George W. Bush said ” WE will PREVAIL” – – – and once again repeated by –
President Barrack Obama said “WE will PREVAIL” (but this time talking about Isis)
There is no surrender – There is no peace – The N.Y.P.D. now has terrorist drills because terror has come home to roost.. There are armed troops in the subways (National Guard?? – IDK) Perpetual WAR (Dick Cheney’s famous are you safer today??). A New Crusades – a war against a culture.
IS IT NOW THE BEST – – OR THE WORST ABOUT TO HAPPEN??
Bush Administration Convicted of War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity
By Francis A. Boyle
Global Research, May 30, 2013
The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal was convened and conducted according to internationally recognized procedures and rules of evidence, and the week-long hearing ended with the five-member panel unanimously delivering guilty verdicts.
So how many of our citizens will write it off and say they aren’t anyone we have to listen to….OR maybe it isn’t Nuremberg……no longer a world traveler…….IS OUR COUNTRY A LAWLESS COUNTRY PROTECTING A “WAR CRIMINAL”….stand up and defend your actions
What puzzles me is – – – I do not think our citizens have ever heard a word about this….
just another dirty little “secret” to be hidden from the people….. A secret government working against the people it is supposed to represent, do not think it is only one little secret…
Bush Administration Convicted of War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity
By Francis A. Boyle
Global Research, May 30, 2013
Should be on a billboard in Times Square, like dec 31 2016
Drone “pilots” have a moral obligation to walk away from this slaughter! It’s a goddamned job, find other work!! Obama must pardon and cease persecuting all whistle-blowers in the fedgov! They are following their conscience. Also, the many political prisoners being silenced by prison confinement like John Walker Lindh, must be freed and pardoned! This doc is a must-see!
the corruption of the US government is an abomination being preserved by secrecy and rendition and torture and threats and all manner of ills and evils.
The act of whistle blowing is an act that also seeks to redress an imbalance of power, a hijacking of conscience, a theft of pride, an assault upon allegiance, and a rendition of one’s soul.
A colony of human ants may be strong and powerful, BUT NOT GOOD
Mr. Obama understood that these have broad support among American citizens, provided they are only used in remote places. Mr. Trump, on the other hand, is liable to deploy drones in New York and other cities closer to home. Americans would therefore like him to institute more transparent protocols for firing on children, and I think this is reasonable. It’s important not to lose drone operators to PTSD faster than you can train new ones.
“Americans would therefore like him to institute more transparent protocols for firing on children, ”
The IDF manual has a whole section on targeting children.
Yeah. You can target them if their feet touch the ground when they stand up.
firing upon drones is just downright unpatriotic!
0Bama should pardon Snowden and Manning. Never were in consequences for the culprits in “Collateral Murder” that Manning exposed.
Where’s the consequences for Obama’s murders ?
Collateral Murder.
Indeed.
I look forward, sort of, to seeing this film.
The inclusion of the usual “poor poor soldiers” angle won’t be a highlight of the experience I’m sure.
I mean what kind of moral imbecile takes a few hundred dollars a month to sit in a little room and fucking kill people half way around the world and later comes to realize it might not have been “good”.
PTSD?
I wouldn’t piss on these people if they were on fire.
“A few hundred dollars per month” Lmao , these ” guys in a room” are ex fighter jet pilots and they drive to work in hundred thousand dollar sports cars I bet .
You need to read around a bit more. These people are making $2K a month to start and they are definitely not ex-fighter pilots. More like ex-cashiers at WalMart.
As far as I’m concerned they can put all the pilots in a cage an douse them with gasoline.
THANK YOU for this comment!!! I show a lot of War on Terror documentaries in my classes and I’m always sickened by how they center the experiences of “the poor lil American soldiers”. It’s a cultural/racial thing, I guess: American audiences can’t sympathize with brown, “third world” Muslims so the filmmakers include US soldiers too. It makes war documentaries palatable to the war-mongering classes. Disgusting and shameless
I agree! It really pisses me off that some idiots claiming to be on the left have sold the left this bullshit that we need to support our troops, even if we oppose what they’re doing. As an example of “inconsistent” in the dictionary they use that BS. Fuck the troops, I don’t support anyone in any military, and especially the U.S. military. These people ceased being noble warriors and became immoral or amoral thugs as soon as they started using guns. And if what you’re doing is bad, you’re bad, simple as that.
profound observation