The great divide: Washington remains split on drone strikes
Leading think tank believes that surgical strikes will continue.
Anti war campaigner Concepcion Picciotto at her protest site on a pavement in Washington. PHOTO: AROOSA SHAUKAT / EXPRESS
WASHINGTON:
“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.
“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.