The soldierless war creeps ever closer and closer. We can now strike at the heart of communities from a comfortable office. Young people can sit at what would resemble a games console and mark up their score in hits, oblivious to the terror and carnage that is happening as they watch a screen and push an innocuous button. A family wiped out, a village destroyed and they didn't get off their backsides. Drones, for surveillance, drones for destruction, drones for home and drones for abroad. Control and carnage from an air conditioned office block near you.
This from Stop The War Coalition, CND, War On Want, Drone Campaign Network:
Last Saturday saw hundreds march to RAF Waddington against the UK government's use of Drones in Afghanistan, now controlled from the military airbase near Lincoln. The largest demonstration against drones to date brought together Stop the War, War on Want, the Drone Campaign Network and CND and more than 600 members of the public to launch a national campaign against drones.
The pressure of our campaign has already been felt after the Ministry of Defence was forced to admit just two days before the protest that the Waddington control centre is now in operation. But much of the secrecy about how British drones are being used, and the threat of new interventions, remains.
A comment in January by the Secretary of State for Defence showed just how easy a new intervention might be when he had turned down a request from France to send drones to Mali because of the "unacceptable impact on our operations in Afghanistan". The question of whether or not British people want a new war in Mali was not even raised.
The widespread media coverage on drones that Saturday's demonstration has provoked has started an important debate about their use and showed just how important a strong anti-drones campaign will be in the coming months.
Stop the War would like to thank all those who participated in Saturday's successful demo
