Know Drones Tour to Highlight Choice: Green Energy or Non-Stop War for Resources?

As part of the No Drones! education tour in Ohio in September, representatives of New York State-based Know Drones held an event at the Green Energy Information Center in Brookville on Saturday, September 15, 2012. They were joined by other tour sponsors: members of Dayton Anti-War Now (DAWN), Veterans for Peace, and others.

There was a press conference to address the choice between developing renewable energy and materials versus non-stop war to control non-renewable resources, such as oil and minerals. (Read more below.)

Members of the tour displayed a 1/5 actual size model of a Reaper drone, and stayed through the afternoon to talk with visitors to the Center.

Green Energy Information Center
10404 National Road
Brookville, OH
(near the Dull Homestead Farm)

For information, contact Steve Fryberg at steve [at] missingpeaceart.org .

More information on the entire No Drones! education tour in Ohio.

THE CHOICE: ENDLESS WAR FOR RESOURCES? OR RENEWABLE ENERGY?

The Race for What's Left by Michael Klare describes the increasing struggle among industrialized nations for access to oil with the full intention of burning up as much of it as possible. Klare calls for a crash plan to develop renewable energy sources and other basic materials. Clearly a dramatically urgent program to cut burning of fossil fuels is needed.

In spite of this, the US is bent on using its military to gain and hold access to oil resources worldwide. The drone has a unique role in this drive for control because unlike any other weapon, it can monitor the lives of individuals and groups for days on end and kill at a moment's notice. Government and business leaders around the world are well aware of this and must certainly be influenced in their decisions by the knowledge they can be easily assassinated by drones.

If we are to begin a serious, effective mobilization to get off fossil fuels, we must close the door to the use of the military to "capture" oil. The military option for access to oil must no longer be an option.

The removal of the military option for acquiring resources would, of course, be revolutionary in the history of the world. A ban on drone surveillance and weaponized drones worldwide can be and must be the first step in that direction, and by describing the ban as such, we may be able to encourage people to think about the existential choices that we are now making on a daily basis, at this point by default. The advent of the drone may help us to understand where we are headed and where we want to go.

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Image: American Legacy by Steve Fryburg: "The cloud of an atomic bomb in the background, a weapon that allows the near annihilation of an enemy without exposure to the horror and suffering inflicted. The Predator Drones flying in the forefront, today’s latest way of extending the distance between us and the 'enemy'; so that the horrors of war can be isolated to those who we inflict it upon.

"It has been said that the A-Bomb saved the lives of 50,000 or more soldiers and today the killer drone is said to keep soldiers out of harm’s way. If we can impose our wrath without exposure or apparent risk, the easier it is for war and state terrorism to continue with the blessings of the citizens.

"The oil rig is an icon for the resources US corporations have, and are still pillaging from other countries under the shadow of America’s military might. And the cross for the pseudo-Christians that wallow in self-righteousness in the US, but fail miserably to live up to the ideals of the man who died on that cross after teaching such things as 'Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God' …"