Friend : For decades, the Pentagon has dropped bombs on communities from control centers thousands of miles away.
The New York Times found that one in every five people killed in the Pentagon’s lethal drone strikes are “ordinary” people. This is a shockingly high rate, and likely even to be an undercount.
When these tragedies strike, there is little recourse for their survivors. While Congress has allocated $3 million each year for condolence, or “ex gratia,” payments, too many victims never see a cent. The Pentagon’s track record is unconscionably low : In 2021, just one ex gratia payment was made, and NONE the year before. Instead, these millions roll back into the Pentagon budget — and too many wrongful victims are left to endure a tragedy without support or acknowledgment from the party responsible : the U.S. government.
This system is broken, and even now, as the Pentagon updates its
condolence guidelines, we’re hearing that they are unlikely to go far
enough. The Pentagon is reluctant to use this money to pay victims of past strikes — preferring to pay only for future harms.
That’s
why advocates and activists alike are raising the alarm : This policy
leaves past victims out in the cold, excluding the exact people it
should be serving. Every wrongful victim of the Pentagon’s violence
deserves justice and accountability, friend. Let’s make sure Defense Secretary Austin hears from people across the country before the ink dries on another bad policy !
Lethal drone strikes are the keystone of the U.S.’s endless wars – they’re a crucial part of the current strategy governing the “war on terror.” They’re also reckless in their targeting. Among the targets of these U.S. bombings have been parents in West Mosul driving a car with their children in the backseat, a family’s tent encampment in a Yemeni desert, and so many family homes in one Iraqi neighborhood that its inhabitants started sleeping in shifts.
With the U.S. no longer willing to put service members in harm’s way to achieve the unachievable in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere, lethal strikes from above became a “low cost” means of waging conflict, all while disregarding human rights and life along the way.
The victims at the front lines of this violence deserve justice. Instead, $3 million sits on commanders’ desks every year, as our broken foreign policy continues to fail families who we’ve already torn apart. New policies about how to compensate victims are being drafted as we speak – and we have to act now to make sure these policies don’t ignore the same people that they should be helping.
The good news ? It’s rare for the Pentagon to hear from activists like us, and when tens of thousands of folks like you make their voices heard, we CAN push even the most powerful generals to listen to the will of the people.
It’s time for the Pentagon to right its wrongs when it comes to compensating innocent victims of lethal drone strikes. Can we count on you to stand up for justice and accountability today?
Call on the Defense Secretary: Include ALL strike victims in the new ex gratia guidance.
Together, we can hold the Pentagon accountable to those it has gravely failed, and push for a better future we know is possible : one where U.S. endless wars are finally put to an end.
Thank you for working for peace,
Sarah, Yint, Shayna, and the Win Without War team.
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