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Former US drone operator recalls dropping


aztek

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A former US drone operator is speaking out against the atrocities he says he was forced to inflict during his time in the armed forces and says the American military as ‘worse than the Nazis’.

Brandon Bryant was enlisted in the US Air Force for six years. During his time with the military, he operated Predator drones, remotely firing missiles at targets more than 7,000 miles away from the small room containing his workspace near Las Vegas, Nevada.

Mr Bryant says he reached his breaking point with the US military after killing a child in Afghanistan that his superiors told him was “a dog.” Mr Bryant recalls the moment: After firing a Hellfire missile at a building containing his target, he saw a child exit the building just as the missile struck. When he alerted his superiors about the situation after reviewing the tape, he was told “it was a ****ing dog, drop it.”

 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/former-us-drone-operator-recalls-175600542.html

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During his time in the Air Force, Mr Bryant estimates he contributed directly to killing 13 people himself and says his squadron fired on 1,626 targets including women and children. He says he has been left suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

 

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Yup, Nellis AFB.  There was a big discussion about how it would affect the operators who were piloting the drones from thousands of miles away.  People were worried that they would become desensitized and treat it like a video game.

Remember this? https://www.amnestyusa.org/is-it-legal-for-the-u-s-to-kill-a-16-year-old-u-s-citizen-with-a-drone/

Killed without a trial, never accused of a crime and not even the target.

That was what really soured me on Obama.

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40 minutes ago, Gromdor said:

Yup, Nellis AFB.  There was a big discussion about how it would affect the operators who were piloting the drones from thousands of miles away.  People were worried that they would become desensitized and treat it like a video game.

Remember this? https://www.amnestyusa.org/is-it-legal-for-the-u-s-to-kill-a-16-year-old-u-s-citizen-with-a-drone/

Killed without a trial, never accused of a crime and not even the target.

That was what really soured me on Obama.

Well... you know how it is... Obama said he never knew he'd be THAT good at killing people (or something close to that).  That kid's father had a LOT of blood on his hands and had he been left to continue it would have been criminal, IMO.  Anwar al Awlaki deserved to be vaporized but his son - who was in High School in Denver, IIRC, - didn't.  This was the primary example I thought of when the media and the Left were screeching about Trump killing that butcher Soleimani.  The hypocrisy just reeks.

As for the OP, I never served and I certainly never sacrificed like so many in our military have, but I find it difficult to believe that guys like this suddenly wake up one day with an overburdened conscience.  To me, that MOS is exactly like volunteering to train and be deployed as a sniper - without the physical risks involved.  PTSD?  Okay, sure, I get that.  My question is why did he ask for that gig to begin with and why didn't he ask to be reassigned?  

I certainly wouldn't want to have those images burned into my mind forever if I believed I was being ordered to murder people.  He just seems a bit too self-serving in his outrage.  He trains and then does the 9 to 5 for YEARS, THEN decides our military is evil?  It sounds like he needs to spend some time with a pastor or a shrink and let the warfighters do the job that needs doing.  I see his very public crisis of conscience as an assault on the state of morality for the entire armed forces.  THAT is not his call.  He's responsible for what HE CHOOSES to do.

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1 hour ago, Eldorado said:

He's been talking for a while, now.

At Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandon_Bryant_(whistleblower)

I certainly hope that he's telling the unvarnished truth about his experiences.  I'm so jaded and disbelieving of what I see and hear in the media that I have trouble crediting it most of the time.  I find it damned hard to believe that U.S. military members are trained and ENCOURAGED to commit atrocities against women and children -here's the essential point - as PRIMARY targets.  He makes it sound like his commanders thought of Afghan children, as a group, as "dogs".  By God, if he made an accusation like that about anyone in his unit then he should bear the burden of calling them out and insisting they be charged with war crimes.  

Guys like this who pish and moan and feel the need to unburden themselves at the expense of the entire force, make me sick.  He needs to man up, take responsibility for HIS actions and if he really feels guilty and wants absolution then fine, I can respect that.  But don't dump all over the service and the other men and women doing a hard job today.  GRRRR

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18 hours ago, and then said:

Okay, sure, I get that.  My question is why did he ask for that gig to begin with and why didn't he ask to be reassigned?  

Sometimes the road to Hell is a gentle decline and not a sharp drop off. When those around you whom you once respected tell you to keep going, it is hard to turn back.

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On 2/7/2020 at 7:03 PM, and then said:

I certainly hope that he's telling the unvarnished truth about his experiences.  I'm so jaded and disbelieving of what I see and hear in the media that I have trouble crediting it most of the time.  I find it damned hard to believe that U.S. military members are trained and ENCOURAGED to commit atrocities against women and children -here's the essential point - as PRIMARY targets.  He makes it sound like his commanders thought of Afghan children, as a group, as "dogs".  By God, if he made an accusation like that about anyone in his unit then he should bear the burden of calling them out and insisting they be charged with war crimes.  

Guys like this who pish and moan and feel the need to unburden themselves at the expense of the entire force, make me sick.  He needs to man up, take responsibility for HIS actions and if he really feels guilty and wants absolution then fine, I can respect that.  But don't dump all over the service and the other men and women doing a hard job today.  GRRRR

us convoys never stop, no matter what,  they will run over your kids playing and keep going.   so they are not only encouraged but ordered to do so.

https://www.quora.com/Is-it-true-that-soldiers-in-Iraq-were-advised-to-keep-driving-their-truck-even-if-there-were-children-on-the-roads-because-of-the-possibility-of-an-ambush

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