The classic American imperialistic double-standard might lead one to believe that military drones flying over Lebanon and occasionally crashing near or into a school full of children is nothing new, nothing out of the ordinary, in this cloak and dagger existence we quaintly refer to as “civilization.” After all, the Middle East is full of barbarians and violence, right? They treat their women like goats and murder in the name of some kind of third-rate religion — that’s what we’re bred to believe here, aren’t we? War, blood and violence are normal over there and in the midst of such violence, such pungent disregard for life or humanity, let’s face it mistakes happen, right? Computers malfunction, human error leaps in like the town drunk into a ballet and sometimes kids die. Schools blow up. That’s just war, right? Something over there. But, one might be more prone to disgust, outrage and nervousness, even outright rebellion once one realizes that this is no dusty country in the Middle East we are talking about here, but Lebanon County, Pennsylvania.
Last Thursday an unmanned aerial vehicle weighing just under 400 pounds crashed near Lickdale Elementary in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, alarming the community as well as civil liberties advocates who disapprove of drones flying over the U.S.
The drone was an RQ-7 Shadow, 11 feet long with a wingspan of 14 feet. It experienced a “hard landing” (read “crash”) before a civilian ran it over. Picture a 400 pound, 11-foot long, 14-feet wide anything barreling out of the sky and thumping young Johnny on the back of the head on his way to school. It’s likely he won’t be joining the Spanish Club anytime soon, that’s a safe wager. It’s not a pretty picture, right? (Nor is it in the Middle East or along our borders for that matter.) No one was hurt luckily, but the drone was a total loss and reportedly worth $150,000. (No mention of the potential cost of human life was given.)
What will it take for enough citizens to begin wondering aloud what a military drone should be doing flying over civilian airspace? — over elementary schools, no less! Unfortunately, the hard answer to that question is unknown, but public affairs officer for the Pennsylvania National Guard Major Ed Shank told the Lebanon Daily News that drones operate out of an Army post in Lebanon County called Fort Indianatown Gap.
Maj. Shank told WHTM News in Lebanon:
Here at Fort Indianatown Gap, that’s the first time something like this has happened…. When it does happen we investigate it very thoroughly to figure out what happened and then let the public know and let our own aviators know so that it doesn’t happen again.
Notice how Maj. Shank claims it is the first crash to occur, yet goes on to speak about the protocol they always use, “when it does happen?”
When it does happen, we investigate…
Right, like all those other times that occurred before the first time it ever happened? How often will the American public accept all this double-speak that sounds like accountability and answers, when in fact it means nothing at all, when nothing ever changes, when we allow ourselves to be pushed further and further down the rope until we are dangling by our necks or a finger and those who reign death upon us feed us flimflam and treat us like idiot step-children?
Local affiliates claim the U.S. Army and Marine Corps. use such aircraft designed for reconnaissance and surveillance abroad for “training exercises” here in the states, but should our civilian neighborhoods and communities be the training ground for military action? Is there no air space available above, say, one of several oceans where the Army and Marine Corps. can learn how to play with their toys without risking civilian life and the security that is supposed to accompany a functioning civil society? Either Maj. Shank is feeding the public a handful of sawdust and those drones serve a secondary purpose other than simple training exercises or there is a serious lack of regard for civilian life here. Why above our communities, where elementary schools, churches, homes and businesses absorb the risks of the military’s failed “training exercises?”
One resident who lives just down the street from where the crash occurred, Lisa Cooper, says folks in the area have grown accustomed to hearing the aircraft blaring above.
I have listened to it for the past couple of years and I was a little unsteady with it going over my house because look what happens. You just don’t know what it could have been.
And this is not the first time drones have crashed. Earlier this year, one U.S. Border Patrol drone, valued at $12 million, was deliberately flown into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of southern California after suffering a mechanical failure. Another crashed into a U.S. Navy battleship last November while undergoing (once again) training exercises, injuring two sailors. The Navy Times reported the 13-foot UAV “crippled a key computer center integral to the ship’s cutting edge combat systems.”
So what’s it going to be, America? Are you going to settle for drones crashing into your homes, schools, churches, parks and businesses for the purpose of military training, or are you going to start standing up and drawing some lines in the sand? Perhaps, while you’re at it, you will also begin to think about the use of such machines, technology and weapons abroad, as well.
America, your conscience is on you.
edited by Kyla Davis
Dylan Hock is a writer, professor, videographer and social activist. He earned an MFA in Writing from Naropa University in 2000 and has been an Occupier since Oct., 2011, both nationally and locally in Michigan. He is published in a number of little magazines and has an essay on the muzzling of Ezra Pound due out July of 2014 by Praeger. He is also a contributing writer for Green Action News and administers Essential Occupy Reading on Facebook.
