A former US assassination drone pilot says he quit the force after feeling \u00c5\u201cnumb\u201d about seeing a child and other civilians blown away in his remote bombing of targets in Afghanistan and realizing he has unconsciously developed a desire to kill.\n<\/p>\n
Since leaving the controversial US targeted-killing program over two years ago, the young X-terror drone operator, who was recruited by the military after graduating at the top of his class, has become homeless and detected with post-traumatic stress disorder, which is commonly associated with US soldiers in warfronts, according to US-based National Public Radio (NPR).\n<\/p>\n
In a recent NPR interview, the former drone pilot, identified as 27-year-old Brandon Bryant, offered some graphic details about feeling troubled after witnessing the immediate outcome of his bombings in Afghanistan on video screens beside his control buttons inside a windowless trailer \u00cb\u0153somewhere in a western US state,\u00e2\u201e\u00a2 from where he fired off the missiles mounted on the assassination drones flying some 10,000 miles (16,000 km) away.\n<\/p>\n
Describing his \u00c5\u201cfirst shot\u201d out in Afghanistan, Bryant said he was specifically \u00c5\u201cordered\u201d to target a group of suspected militants that where (idly) sitting on a hill, rather than another group of militants that were \u00c5\u201cfiring at US soldiers\u201d nearby.\n<\/p>\n
\u00c5\u201cWe fired the missile, and 1.2 seconds after the missile fires, it sonic booms. And so the sonic boom gets there before the missile does\u2026 and then the missile hits. And after the smoke clears, there\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s a crater there. You can see body parts of the people,\u201d he explained. \u00c5\u201cI watched him (one of the men) bleed out. The blood rapidly cooled to become the same color as the ground, because we were watching this in infrared.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Bryant then remembers thinking regretfully about the bombing, believing that that the targeted men were just local folks \u00c5\u201cthat had to protect themselves\u2026 and I think we jumped the gun.\u201d <\/p>\n
The X-drone pilot then went on to describe his next bombing in Afghanistan in which, he says, he bombed a home of suspected militants but noticed a child running around the house (on his video monitor) just before the missile hit the target.\n<\/p>\n
\u00c5\u201cWe just aim at the corner of the building,\u201d Bryant explained. \u00c5\u201cWe\u00e2\u201e\u00a2re going to fire, and we do. And there\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s about six seconds left before the missile impacts, and something runs around the corner of the building. And it looked like a small person\u2026 It was a small, two-legged person. And the missile hits. There\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s no sign of this person.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Further elaborating on the aftermath of that bombing, he added, \u00c5\u201cSo we lock our camera on there, and I ask the screener, who disseminates the video feed,\u2026 who was that thing that ran on the screen?… and comes back and says, oh, that was a dog.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
But Bryant insists, \u00c5\u201cIt was a person. It was a small person. Like, there was no doubt in my mind that that was not a – an adult.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\u00c5\u201cI felt really numb,\u201d he further emphasized, recalling his thoughts after realizing he had blown away a small child with a missile he fired off of a US assassination drone flying over Afghanistan. \u00c5\u201cI didn\u00e2\u201e\u00a2t feel distraught, like I felt my first shot. I felt numb because this was the reality of war\u2026 and innocence can die as well.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
According to the NPR reporter that interviewed Bryant, shortly after that bombing, he decided to leave the [targeted-killing] program, boasted by the Obama administration as its prime mean to root out suspected anti-US militants in Muslim nations.<\/p>\n
Bryant also explained that back in late 2010 he found himself really disturbed about his thought of which militant he is going to kill today, after looking at a poster in his work area of \u00c5\u201cfive top al-Qaeda leaders,\u201d but then having second thoughts of \u00c5\u201cthat\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s just not who I am. I don\u00e2\u201e\u00a2t think like that\u2026 I was taught to respect life\u201d and that if human life was to be taken in a war, \u00c5\u201cit should be done with respect.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
He then underlined that he \u00c5\u201ctried to talk\u201d to people about his feelings but \u00c5\u201cone of the weird things about the whole [assassination] drone community is that you don\u00e2\u201e\u00a2t talk about anything that you\u00e2\u201e\u00a2ve done. You just don\u00e2\u201e\u00a2t. So I just shut up and didn\u00e2\u201e\u00a2t talk to anyone about how I was feeling or how I was doing.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
According to the NPR report, Bryant eventually quit the targeted-killing program and has become homeless and \u00c5\u201cstaying with friends\u201d while attending college in northwestern US state of Montana.\n<\/p>\n
While noting that Bryant has also been diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), the NPR reported pointed to the growing realization that PTSD can also affect terror-drone pilots, even though they \u00c5\u201chaven\u00e2\u201e\u00a2t\u00e2\u201e\u00a2 been on the battlefield.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
The development comes while despite the rising controversy over the legality of the secret assassination drone strikes and the high number of civilian casualties caused by aerial bombings, as part of the US targeted killing program, the Obama administration insists on continuing the lethal effort to take out what it regards as anti-US \u00c5\u201cterror suspect\u201d in Muslim nations.\n<\/p>\n
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