From Upstate Drone Action Coaliton

We assemble here this morning to petition our government to end its
use of killer MQ9 Reaper Drones piloted from Hancock Air Force Base.
Hancock is home to the 174th Attack Wing of the New York State
National Guard. The 174th – together with all too many other U.S.
bases across the planet – has been waging murderous war, in our
name, against the people of the Islamic oil lands, against Iraqis,
Iranians, Afghans, Pakistanis, Somalis, Libyans.

We come from across New York State and beyond, united as the
Upstate Drone Action Coalition, a grassroots assembly of nonviolent
activists. For years our local members have demonstrated here
weekly, protesting Hancock’s role in these crimes against humanity. A
score of times for the past decade Upstate Drone Action – under
cover of the first amendment of the U.S. Constitution – has engaged
in civil resistance at Hancock’s very gate. Dozens of us have been
arrested, have gone to trial, and some have endured prison.
We persist because MQ9 drone attacks are evil. They are shameful,
barbaric, illegal, racist. They are unjust, immoral, cowardly. They are
Islamophobic. They help generate the planet's swelling ranks of
refugees as human beings are displaced, maimed, killed, orphaned,
widowed. Sadly, drone attacks numb our consciences.

Weaponized drone attacks are naked terrorism. What is this "terrorism,"
constantly invoked, but rarely defined? Genuine terrorism is
violence – or the threat of violence – perpetrated on civilians for
political or economic gain. Our nation is the greatest purveyor of
terrorism on our planet.

U.S. terrorism spawns blowback. Last January’s Reaper Drone
assassination of Iran’s General Qassim Suliemani, for example, risked
extreme retaliation. Given the volatility of our era, such attacks may
very well spark nuclear war... that is, global annihilation.
High-tech drone terrorism generates proliferation, with many
nations racing – in defense – for mastery of the skies. Weaponized and
surveillance drones already come home to roost. Hancock’s Reaper
Drones, menacingly, have even surveilled our weekly demonstrations.

Friends, look around you. See the imagery from that brilliant 19th
century fable, Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. We call our 21st
century tableau "Alice’s Nightmare in Drone Land."