DRONE RESISTANCE PICKING UP STEAM

• Organizing against drones is picking up around the country.  It's a good sign.  Global voices are also growing against Obama's escalating use of drones in Central Asia and on the Arabian Peninsula.  But polls still show that more than sixty percent of Americans support Obama's drone attacks.  Much of that support is due to the perception that it saves "American" lives.  Kind of like the justifications for using the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
• In an article in the UK's Guardian last Monday the writer asks, "For those Democrats who are comforted by the fact that Obama has the final say in authorizing drone strikes and so refuse to criticize the administration, ask yourself: would you be as comfortable if the next decision on who is killed by a drone was left to President Romney, or President Palin?"
• I had a call yesterday from another Guardian reporter who was working on a drone story.  He  quoted me extensively in his piece:  However, arms control groups and peace activists see the new weaponry as at best controversial. Bruce Gagnon, the co-ordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, said it would not be long before the drones were being used domestically. "People are beginning to see that these technologies are going to be dual use – meaning over there and back here at home," he said..... According to Gagnon, the advent of the small drone is another step in the military's bid to have battle fought by robots. "We have been seeing this attempt by the military to essentially roboticize warfare. It gives them two very valuable results, it lessens the price, as a drone is much cheaper than an F-16, and secondly it takes increasingly less people on the battlefield. "You still need a lot of people back home flying them and sitting in front of the computers," said Gagnon, "but it puts less people in harm's way and the Pentagon is happy about this. It is easier to sell endless war when fewer GIs are coming home in body bags."
• The fallout for Obama on his drone attacks and endless war making seems to be happening more with people outside the United States. According to the 2012 Pew Global Attitudes survey released on Wednesday Obama's drone program in foreign nations -- including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia -- has fueled mistrust and anger among Muslim nations and even among countries more closely allied with the US.  "There remains a widespread perception that the United States acts unilaterally and does not consider the interests of other countries," said the Pew report which accompanied the survey. The drone strikes are backed by 62% of Americans but have only minority support in every other country polled by Pew. The strongest overseas support for the U.S. strategy is in Britain, where 44% approve and 47% are against. But in France, China, Mexico and Russia there are large majorities opposed to it.