Brandon Bryant was enlisted in the US Air Force for six years. During his time with the military, he operated Predator drones, remotely firing missiles at targets more than 7,000 miles away from the small room containing his workspace near Las Vegas, Nevada.
Mr Bryant says he reached his breaking point with the US military after killing a child in Afghanistan that his superiors told him was "a dog." Mr Bryant recalls the moment: After firing a Hellfire missile at a building containing his target, he saw a child exit the building just as the missile struck. When he alerted his superiors about the situation after reviewing the tape, he was told "it was a f***ing dog, drop it."
Following that incident, Mr Bryant quit the military and began speaking out against the drone program.
During his time in the Air Force, Mr Bryant estimates he contributed directly to killing 13 people himself and says his squadron fired on 1,626 targets including women and children. He says he has been left suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
Mr Bryant said he saw the man he targeted bleed out from his legs and watched as his body went cold on his thermal imaging screen. Mr Bryant said in an interview with GQ:
"The smoke clears, and there's pieces of the two guys around the crater. And there's this guy over here, and he's missing his right leg above his knee. He's holding it, and he's rolling around, and the blood is squirting out of his leg ... It took him a long time to die. I just watched him.Other airmen in Mr Bryant's squadron celebrated his first kill, saying "Brant's popped his cherry."
"That image on the screen is still in my head. Whenever I think about it, it still hurts me. When I pulled the trigger, I knew that it was wrong. When the missile struck I knew in my soul I had become a murderer."
Mr Bryant was enlisted from 2006 to 2011, working as a sensor operator, which helps direct missiles to their targets.
In a conversation with the Roots Action Network, Mr Bryant recalled an instance early in his enlistment where he and his fellow drone operators were shown a video montage of drone strikes, after which they were told their jobs were to "kill people and break things."
"It went against everything that I had ever learned about honor and justice and training. It was terrifying how dismissive people were about the whole affair. We were safe in the U.S. and those over there were not. We win. But that's not how it goes."Mr Bryant said that despite his misgivings about the program, his superiors used punitive measures and mockery to keep him in line.
"It broke my spirit. It went against everything I learned about being a warrior, about holding yourself to higher standards. My superiors psychologically beat me and ridiculed me to keep me in line. They took away my free time and forced me to sit in a seat or be tried under the UCMJ (Uniform Code of Military Justice) for disobeying orders. In a sense, it was my prison. I served my time to learn and reflect. And so I hold the key now, to the entire apparatus. I just don't know what to do with it."He has said the US military is "worse than the Nazis" because "we should know better."
Mr Bryant said he and his family have been threatened for speaking out against the drone program and that he has lost friends and been estranged from other members of his family over his whistle-blowing.
Ultimately Mr Bryant wants the public to understand the dehumanizing effect of the drone program on the operators and the individuals targeted.
"I would want people to know, beyond its existence, the consequences it has on us as a species to delineate our power into something so easily destructive. Every time we get closer to that edge, we're going to have to realise where it places us."
Reader Comments
No doubt, no longer available, probably down the memory hole of misinformation, remember 1984.
Makes me think this mans testimony is real. the dissociation from playing a game and the damage inflicted to a real live people, is nothing more than a video game sequence. And of course the target word is insurgent, Insurgent, because they want to protect there home land from "insurgents" US occupation, and let us not forget, many reports are of innocent families, children and reporters.
It's all just a game in the minds of the operator, along with the mind control of bringing the old used phrase of "Freedom and Democracy" to an illiterate
population that know nothing about Western so called values, which as far as they are concerned come from some kind of alien world.
Maybe the drone operators, and the governments that allow this are from an alien mindset apart from the rest of humanity.
But once you're not getting the blood on you, nor having your friends get blown to pieces next to you? It - especially for 'video = reality' programmed kids who have been programmed as much as the damn system - it's a rare human who can rise above that. Hence my reference to V.V.A.T.W.'s primary founder, Scott Camille, of Gainesville, FL. (As I recall, Sgt. USMC, Three combat tours?) primary target of the US Government/Nixon's MIC, the Gainesville 8, who scared the PTB far more than the notorious and loudmouthed non-vets (as I recall) of the 'Chicago 7.'
R.C.
Just a concern for your health.
To wit:
[Link] The Great War - 1of26 - On the Idle Hill of Summer
My thought it's really worth watching