Anti war campaigner Concepcion Picciotto at her protest site on a pavement in Washington. PHOTO: AROOSA SHAUKAT / EXPRESS
“Drone warfare is terrorism”. These and many other hand-written antiwar slogans on placards grace a small portion of the pavement on Lafayette Square in Washington, in a three-decade-old peace camp that demands an end to use of weapons and force by governments.
Every day since 1981, Concepcion Picciotto, a steely woman in her 70s, has registered her protest against state-sponsored wars and use of force – particularly the US as she sits in the 24-hour-a-day peace camp bordered by two large fluorescent yellow boards bearing slogans and pictures depicting war and suffering near the White House.
Picciotto – who also goes by the name of Connie – never leaves the camp unattended with peace camp volunteers dropping in to take their turns attending to it. “I have stopped counting how old I am,” she chuckles. “This has been my life for so long”.
“We have to be non-violent,” she says, “we must tell the governments and the people that drones are not the solution…it only makes thing worse”. Aggression, she says simply cannot be tolerated, even if it is in the name of establishing peace.
However, recent Gallup polls from March 2013 indicate that a majority of American citizens support drones strikes targeting suspected terrorists in foreign countries as opposed to those who support similar strikes within the US.
The poll indicates that around 65% of Americans support the US government’s use of drones to launch airstrikes in other countries against suspected terrorists. Another 41% of Americans say the US should use drones to launch airstrikes in other countries against US citizens living abroad who are suspected terrorists.
Meanwhile, away from the iconic encampment, experts at the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars, a highly recognised think tank, argue that they do not see the US abandoning the use of drones in the near future, particularly in Pakistan.
Vice President for Scholars and Academic Relations and Director, International Security Studies at the Wilson Centre, Robert Litwak is of the view that the US has and will use drones because of the failure of respective governments to deal with terrorist groups based within their countries.
Similarly, Director Asia Programme at the Wilson Centre, Robert Hathaway believes that as long as the US is in Afghanistan and people in the tribal belts of Pakistan are plotting to kill US troops and citizens, there is no apparent likelihood of drone strikes being abandoned by the US.
With drone strikes fueling a heated international debate, Hathaway admitted that the use of drones, is building a precedence that a country can violate the sovereignty of another country in pursuit of potential threats. For Connie, however, despite the complex nature of events, the solution remains simple, “People have had enough with the suffering. Governments should look into resolving issues instead of making them more complex. No more war.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 24th, 2014.
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Robert Hathaway and others in Washington should realize that people in the Sub-Continent are not plotting to kill US troops. They are defending themselves against foreign invading forces, and after 10 years enough is enough. Just go home and troops will not be killed or injured. In fact better still withdraw US military personnel from all foreign bases, and reduce your fleets to scrap iron. You will save trillions of dollars, taxes could be reduced, the standard of living would rise, and your popularity would increase both at home and abroad. I cannot think of any useful purpose your foreign bases or fleets are serving. I know it is a difficult concept to understand, but peace is really quite simple. Try to think for a change and get your brains around it. The big problem is that you have followed a flawed system for so long you cannot comprehend that it is unnecessary and just does not work. I could explain in detail if you do not quite get it. However, private enterprise are doing it all the time. They bring in consultants, who, for example, find a firm is over staffed. They reduce staff dramatically, profitability and efficiency go up and the economy benefits. Also, just look around you. America is the only country trying to be world policeman, and nobody ever requested it or wanted it, except for one exception.