Anti-drone activist addresses peace groups, city officials

As Tuesday marked the 10-year anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, local peace groups, along with city officials and residents, discussed a different form of intervention: drones.

Bloomington peace groups sponsored a talk with Medea Benjamin, internationally known peace leader and anti-drone activist.

Benjamin is also the co-founder of the women’s peace group, Code Pink, and the international human rights organization, Global Exchange.

The Bloomington branch of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, the Bloomington Peace Action Coalition and the Just Peace Task Force with Unitarian Universalist Church of Bloomington sponsored the event.

Mayor Mark Kruzan and City Councilmember Dave Rollo were present on behalf of the City of Bloomington to welcome Benjamin. 

“Drones have become the new face of intervention, the faceless face,” said David Keppel, a member of the Bloomington Peace Action Coalition and the Just Peace Task Force.

Keppel’s letter to the editor regarding the ethics and politics of targeted killings was recently published in the Feb. 7 edition of the New York Times.

Long-time Bloomington peace activist, Marge Steiner said drone warfare is as repugnant as it gets.

“People should not have to live in fear. It’s horrific,” Steiner said.

Before beginning her presentation, Benjamin recognized two Iraqi members of the audience, Salih Altoma and Kadhim Shaaban.

“Iraq was subjected to the most barbarous war, no other country in the 21st century has been targeted in this manner,” Salih Altoma, professor emeritus of near eastern languages and cultures at IU, said.

Altoma, an 84-year-old who lived through the reign of Saddam Hussein, said the U.S. intervention was worse than anything anyone could have ever imagined.

“It was not a war of democracy, but a war of destruction which destroyed the social structure of the country,” Altoma said. 

65 deaths were reported in Iraq Tuesday due to a wave of bombings, a decade after the U.S. invasion.

Additionally, Benjamin shared multiple stories of innocent individuals she met during her travel to Pakistan who suffered from drones attacks by the United States.

“Drones make it impossible to distinguish between a militant and a civilian,” Benjamin said.

Benjamin said the United States is already conducting drone strikes in multiple nations such as Libya, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, etc.

Practices such as “terror Tuesdays,” where the President meets with a select set of advisors to decide on a hit list, allows the administration to play the role of prosecutor, judge, jury and executioner, Benjamin said.

Kruzan said it was important for Bloomington residents to voice their opinion on this issue and should not fear being un-American for doing so.

“Being afraid of being labeled as unpatriotic takes a nation down a wrong path,” Kruzan said. “Aren’t the true patriots those who question authority?”

Following Benjamin’s address, members of the audience filled out postcards and signed petitions advocating for action from the federal government.

“People like Medea have put their lives on the line,” Steiner said. “But we can all speak out, we can write letters to the editors of the paper and to write to congress.”