Article in OpEd News by Ann Wright: "Drones Kill Kids: Protesting in Hawai`i..."

Following is an article by Ann Wright that appeared in OpEd News yesterday.    The protest was also mentioned in an article in yesterday's Star Advertiser on Obama's visit to Hawai`i.

January 6, 2013

Drones Kill Kids: Protesting in Hawaii Obama's Drone Program

By Ann Wright
As President Barack Obama spent his last day, January 5, in Hawaii, representatives from Hawaii Peace and Justice and World Can't Wait protested his assassin drone program and lack of effort on Palestinian issues in front of his Hawaii vacation home. US citizen protests against the American drone assassination program will continue in 2013.
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As President Barack Obama spent his last day, January 5, in Hawaii, representatives from Hawaii Peace and Justice and World Can't Wait protested his assassin drone program and lack of effort on Palestinian issues in front of his Hawaii vacation home.

Drone protests in the United States over the past three years have had an effect on reducing the number of drone strikes and the deaths of civilians. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (BIJ) reported on January 4, that probably due to public criticism, "civilian deaths fell sharply in Pakistan in 2012, with Bureau data suggesting that a minimum of 2.5% of those reported killed were civilians -- compared with more than 14% in 2011. This suggests the CIA is seeking to limit non-militant casualties, perhaps as a result of sustained criticism."

BIJ states that another reason for a decline in Pakistani strikes and civilian casualties may have been growing hostility. Some 74% of polled citizens said they view the US as an enemy, and that Pakistan was the only nation favoring Mitt Romney for US President.

Anti-American feelings in Yemen continue to grow with the increase in drone attacks in that country. Al Qaeda in the Arab Peninsula last week issued a bounty of three kilograms of gold for the assassination of the US Ambassador to Yemen and a bounty of 5 million rials or $23,350 for the death of an American soldier.

US citizen protests against the American drone assassination program will continue in 2013 in the Arc of Justice march in Washington, DC on January 21, the day of President Obama's inauguration.
Protests in New York, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Missouri, Hawaii, Maryland, North Dakota and Wisconsin are planned for later in 2013.


(Photos by Renie Lindley)




Author's Website: www.voicesofconscience.com

Author's Bio:

Ann Wright is a 29 year US Army/Army Reserves veteran who retired as a Colonel and a former US diplomat who resigned in March, 2003 in opposition to the war on Iraq. She served in Nicaragua, Grenada, Somalia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Sierra Leone, Micronesia and Mongolia. In December, 2001 she was on the small team that reopened the US Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. She is the co-author of the book "Dissent: Voices of Conscience." (www.voicesofconscience.com).