Male sage grouse congregate during
the mating season in areas called leks, year
after year, to display their plumage, strut
their stuff and attract mates. Disturbed
lek sites and seasonal habitats have been
a factor in the decline of the sage grouse,
Little says.
The proposed drone testing area is also
home to elk, mule deer and antelope. Little
says ONDA wants to help the proponents
locate their testing areas to prevent and
minimize impacts to proposed wilderness
areas and certain types of wildlife habitats,
as well as disturbances to the hikers
enjoying the quiet and solitude of the
backcountry.
Remote-control aircraft buzzing central
Oregon skies on practice missions is one
problem, but killing people thousands
of miles away by remote control takes
involved in the military’s UAV programs
admit “appealing to youth gaming culture
was one of their explicit goals.” A robotics
expert working for the Marines said, “We
modeled the controller after the PlayStation
because that’s what these 18-, 19-year-old
Marines have been playing with all of their
lives.”
In her book, Benjamin quotes a drone
pilot in Qatar saying, “It’s like a video
game. It can get a little bloodthirsty, but
it’s fucking cool,” and she cites instances
of pilots who sit at a base in Nevada, drop
Hellfi re missiles from Predator drones in
Afghanistan, then drive home in time to
catch a rerun of Friends.
Though in some cases, the killing,
despite being on a video feed, becomes
more personal. Benjamin writes of drone
pilot Matt Martin, who was watching on
‘It’s like a video game. It
can get a little bloodthirsty,
but it’s fucking cool.’
— drone pilot
things to another level. The Oregon test
site wouldn’t have bombs or ordnance
dropping from the drones, according to
EDCO, but Benjamin points out that the
funding for drone technology, even drones
for civilian use, generally comes from the
military.
Wyden and others in the pro-drone tech
contingent say there are many legitimate
uses of drone technology. “Search and
rescue, targeting drug operations in
national forests, and aiding police pursuits
in urban areas could all be done more
safely, effectively and inexpensively with
the right UAV technology,” a statement
from Hoelzer says. She goes on to cite
spotting forest fi res and improving crop
yields as other uses for UAVs.
The technology can be used for good
or for bad, Benjamin says — and when
it comes to being used for spying and
violating privacy rights, and for killing
people, drones are unacceptable.
Benjamin pulls together books, news
stories and her own personal experience in
Drone Warfare to document the terrors of
drone technology. She cites the book Wired
for War when she writes that those deeply
WWW.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM
screen as two children on a bike rode up to
a group of supposed rebels he had targeted.
Martin had already released the missile.
When the screen cleared, he could see the
bike blown 20 feet away, and the bodies
of the two little boys “lay bent and broken
among the bodies of the insurgents.”
Benjamin says the military often relies
on faulty information when targeting “bad
guys” for drone strikes, and she takes
President Obama to task in particular.
“He’s taken us into this new age of drone
warfare,” Benjamin says, as has Congress
and the military. “Also shocking is the
lack of response,” she says, adding that
certainly if these were the actions of
George W. Bush we would be seeing an
outcry about the thousands of people killed
as a result of drone warfare.
The current government, Benjamin
says, is more concerned about partisan
politics. “We’re making more enemies
faster than we can kill them,” she says, and
“making more people hate America.”
Medea Benjamin will present “Drone Warfare and What
You Can Do to Stop It,” answer questions and sign copies
of Drone Warfare at Cozmic, 199 West 8th, 7 pm, Sunday
July 1. $5-$25 suggested donation. Call 343-7970 for
more information.
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EUGENE WEEKLY JUNE 28, 2012
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