The Forgotten Voices of Obama’s Drone War

Nandra Galang Anissa,

Correspondent (Our World)

 

Let me start by putting things in perspective — for every child that the American media glorifies as a survivor of tyranny, there are other children in the same region who are victims of violent military action but never get the media attention they deserve. That is exactly what I have been observing during my attempt for understanding the debates behind America’s drone wars.

I am not saying Malala Yousafzai did not deserve the attention. I have so much respect for her and I consider her one of my heroes. She is a courageous young woman who fought for her and other young girls’ rights to education. She stood up against a tyrannical regime and survived an attempted assassination.

The only thing I am unsettled about is the fact that it seems the American mainstream media is — for lack of a better term — using her to highlight the cruelty of the enemy and in turn justifies their motion to continue the drone attacks in Pakistan. The Obama administration’s reason to use drones in Pakistan is so they can make targeted attacks on the enemy. But its impact towards civilians is still highly debatable.

The Washington Post‘s report in March 2013 estimated a death toll of 4,700 from the drone programmes in various regions including Pakistan and Somalia. In Pakistan alone, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism estimated the death toll to have reached between 2528–3644 ever since the drone programmes started in 2004. Among those, 416-948 of them were civilians and 168-200 were children. These numbers do not include civilians who were injured or lost their homes as a result of the attack. So despite the fact that the drone programme has indeed resulted in the killing of a Taliban leader, was it even worth it to have that much civilian casualties?

Just about a week ago, victims of the drone attacks in Pakistan flew 6,000 miles to Washington to testify to Congress regarding their losses and their concerns. Nine-year-old Nabila Rehman asked the members of congress in attendance what her grandmother did wrong. Sadly though, only five out of 535 members of Congress witnessed Nabila’s testimonial, as reported by Al-Jazeera. Doesn’t this just prove that the administration are turning a blind eye when it comes the consequences of their own military actions?

My biggest criticism, however, is directed towards the American mainstream media. When Malala finally survived her horrifying ordeal, television networks flocked to her to get an exclusive interview. She appeared exclusively for Christiane Amanpour on CNN and Jon Stewart’s Daily Show. However, when Nabila Rehman and her family, who lost their grandmother to the drone attack, not one network except Al-Jazeera America held an exclusive interview.

To put it harshly, it seems as if the media has ignored the other, least favourable, side of the drones debate. When the media found stories proving the tyrannical nature of the enemy, they rushed to get the first story. But when it is time to criticise their own government, it’s as if they subtly step away from the debate. Is this therefore further proof of the media’s failure to maintain objectivity? Have they failed to provide equal attention and coverage to both parties of the debate?

At times of controversial conflict such as this one, it seems that the media have been unable to inform the public of the entire perspective of the debate. But in fact, it is during times of conflict that the public needs every information possible, coming from different views of those affected, in order to enable them to form an informed criticism on the issue. Debates of a military nature like this drone attacks are especially a controversial one, as it is very largely funded by the federal budget, which are ultimately taxpayer’s money as well.

War is an ugly business, in which there are no winners. True, the Talibans are a despicably oppressive regime. And true, they need to be put to justice. But are the drones, with enough power to obliterate an entire village, really the only justifiable solution to end this tyranny? Are the rising death tolls of civilians not worth any concern that only 1% of the members of Congress bothered to actually hear what the victims has got to say?

The media is suppose to provide an informed, critical debate. By allowing voices like Nabila Rehman’s to slip under the radar, they have failed to do just that.

Image Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons