The 2013 DC Drones Conference: 5 Big Takeaways

So much went on this past weekend at the  2013 CODEPINK Drone Summit "Drones Around the Globe: Proliferation and Resistance" in Washington, DC -- before I head back to Chicago I want to emphasize the really big realizations that I'm taking away with me.

(1) The first-hand stories make this scourge un-ignorable

We're all inundated with facts and figures about the killings being carried out with drones. But it's the personal testimony of witnesses -- like the relatives of victims who traveled all the way from Yemen to tell their stories and ex-military personnel like former intel analyst Daniel Hale -- who play the most vital role in explaining why drone killing has to stop. (Listen for yourself.)


(2) A war against communities of color

In presentation after presentation -- starting with the inspirational words of Cornel West, continuing with the testimony of representatives of Yemen, Pakistan, Afghanistan and other countries who came to tell their stories-- and reinforced by comment after comment by conference participants, it is clear that we will only deal successfully with the crimes being committed using drones when we understand them as part of the much larger war against communities of color, and commit totally to resisting that larger war.

(See Drone Gaze, Drone Injury: The War on Communities of Color)

(3) The U.S. network against drones has taken off!

We held a session at 8:30 Sunday morning about building the U.S. network against drones. There was a huge turnout for a very effective session, and everybody left the room committed to pitching in to make the network successful. (Join the network yourself.)

(4) The global network against drones is coming

It's clear that the beginnings of a global network are coming into place.  My prediction?  2014 will be the year that we see truly coordinated activism by people worldwide to put a stop to the misuse of drones.

Bruce Gagnon from the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space concurs: "Clearly there is growing interest and organizing energy around drones and we are thrilled to see that."

(See What Would a Global Movement to Ground the Drones Look Like?)


(5) CODEPINK is awesome

This was a big event -- about 400 participants with many moving parts.  It came off flawlessly.  I can't say enough about what a great job CODEPINK did in putting the event together and carrying it out. (Watch for yourself.)

We're all fortunate to have CODEPINK doing this important work.



see also:

Drone Free Zone: At the second annual Drone Summit, Code Pink and Cornel West argue that all lives are equal

Anti-drone movement prepares for take off

Related posts

As I headed into the 2013 drones summit, I was thinking about the need for more transparency, the role of the faith community, the possible impact of the 2014 midterms, and more . . . .

(See The DC Drones Conference: What I'll Be Thinking About)

To those of us who have worked hard to get U.S. troops out of Afghanistan, it is flabbergasting to see reports that U.S. officials see a "need" for someplace else to send troops and material: apparently, there's no such thing as demobilization, only re-deployment.

(See AFRICOM: The Heart of Darkness)

In Chicago, there is a push to convert the Ames middle school, which serves a predominantly Spanish-speaking neighborhood, into a military academy.

What does this tell us about the real workings of the immigration policy that Obama and the Democrats have created?  What's the real meaning of the DREAM act?

(See The Militarization of Ames: The Real Meaning of the DREAM Act )

The DC Drones Conference: What I'll Be Thinking About

As I join people from around the world gathering in Washington, DC, for the  2013 CODEPINK Drone Summit "Drones Around the Globe: Proliferation and Resistance" (Nov 16/17) this weekend, here are some of the questions I'll be thinking about.

(UPDATE: To learn what I'm thinking about now that the summit has concluded, see The 2013 DC Drones Conference: 5 Big Takeaways )


Who decides?

If the public will join us in asking the question "Who decides?" about drone executions, I believe they will rapidly come to realize that they are utterly dissatisfied with what the government is saying.

(See Who Decides? (When Drones are Judge, Jury, and Executioner) )
 

When will we learn the truth? 

Until we have the facts, the U.S. government will continue to dance around the issue.

A new U.N. report makes it clear that the U.S. has to report fully on all its drone attacks.

(See 2014: The Year of Transparency (for U.S. Drone Use)?)








Where is the faith community?

 In particular, when will American Christians begin to see the problem of drones as the threat that it is to everything that they believe in?

After all, wasn't Jesus, himself, a victim of a wrong way of "seeing" by the agents of Empire?

(See Was the Crucifixion a "signature strike"?)

Will U.S. politics in 2014 address the drone problem?

Isn't now a moment when, instead of falling back into our existing habits of trying to change America's war-making ways, we should put our recent experience under a microscope? And ask what we can learn from this experience? Can we make 2014 the year that we sort the wheat from the chaff in Congress? And get the control over war and peace back into our own hands?

(See Election 2014: The Moment of Truth for the US Antiwar Movement?)

Will the opponents of drone surveillance make a difference?

One issue that has a key place in the midterm elections in 2014, I believe, is surveillance.  With each passing day, I am hearing more and more people say that the surveillance issue is something that a wide spectrum of people are deeply upset about. That includes people on the right as well as people on the left -- people who don't usually talk with each other, much less work together for positive change!

(See The Surveillance Issue: The Fulcrum of the 2014 Election?)


POSTSCRIPT: I guess I was still thinking about this question as the conference concluded. Drone Free Zone: At the second annual Drone Summit, Code Pink and Cornel West argue that all lives are equal. in In These Times quoted me the day after: "There is a wing of this movement that is concerned about surveillance; there is a wing of this movement that’s concerned about physical injury to people. If there is one area where there is not always full communication, coordination or agreement, that’s it. . . . If the people who feel most concerned about surveillance are actually successful at sitting together with the people concerned about physical injury, this is going to be an incredibly powerful movement."


Related posts

What I Learned: Five big realizations I'm taking away from the 2013 CODEPINK Drone Summit "Drones Around the Globe: Proliferation and Resistance" in Washington, DC.

(See The 2013 DC Drones Conference: 5 Big Takeaways )

The biggest idea coming out of the 2013 Drone Summit? We will only deal successfully with the crimes being committed using drones when we understand them as part of the much larger war against communities of color . . . .

(See Drone Gaze, Drone Injury: The War on Communities of Color )

Many of us who weren't in Pakistan to participate in the massive rally against U.S. drone strikes participated in this protest by holding rallies where we were (for instance, in London), or by participating virtually via the #PakistanAgainstDrones campaign on Twitter.

(See What Would a Global Movement to Ground the Drones Look Like?)