Drone Pilots Confess: Widespread Drug Abuse and Callousness Toward Civilian Casualties

Our government would like us to think that drones are a precision weapon, and an essential tool in the war on terror. In reality, the drone program kills far more civilians than terrorists, which ultimately inspires more people to join terror groups. You have to wonder, what is it like to be a crew member for one of these extrajudicial assassination machines, and how do these people cope with such a horrifying job?

According to four former drone operators, they do a lot of drugs. Alcoholism is rampant, and many of the operators use bath salts and synthetic marijuana, which don’t show up in drug tests. They do this to “bend that reality and try to picture yourself not being there.” Oftentimes, they are impaired during their missions.

These pilots also cope by participating in a culture that is endemic in the drone community. It’s a culture that celebrates death and is callous toward civilian casualties. Children are called “fun-sized terrorists” and their deaths are referred to as “cutting the grass before it grows too long.” Former airman Michael Haas claimed that when he was a flight instructor, he was once reprimanded by his superiors for failing a student who expressed “bloodlust” for the job. “There was a much more detached outlook about who these people were we were monitoring. Shooting was something to be lauded and something we should strive for.”

These former drone operators have since penned an open letter to President Obama, which denounced the drone program. They felt a renewed urgency to speak out after the terror attack in Paris, and believe that the program is only breeding more terrorists around the world. As former drone pilot Brandon Bryant put it “We kill four and create 10. If you kill someone’s father, uncle or brother who had nothing to do with anything, their families are going to want revenge.”