Former drone operator says he's haunted by his part in more than 1,600 deaths

[sabrina 1]

33. People without empathy. So many of them in the US. That is scary, isn't it? They cannot relate to

the pain of the mothers who pick up the pieces of their babies after someone like this pushes a button on a 'video game' and obliterates their beloved child. There is a name for people with no ability to empathize with the pain and suffering of others.

I swore when I saw the first photos of dead children in Iraq taken by Dahr Jamail, rows and rows of bodies, that I would never allow myself to become used to it. It isn't as shocking as the first time, the first child I remember even had a name. He was one of the lucky ones, he didn't die. He lost his arms and legs in the first assault on Baghdad. He also lost his parents and siblings. He was crying in pain, the hospital had no pain killers as there were so many injured, the 'lucky ones' who didn't die. So many dead. HIS name was 'Ali'. After CNN put that film on the air the first night of the invasion, we never saw footage of any of the reality of that terrible war again on our media. Ali was taken out of Iraq due to the kindness of others. I don't know what happened to him.

I will never allow them to make this 'normal' and 'acceptable'. It is not, it is monstrous.