This is a little something I wrote by way of stimulus for a discussion on drone attacks. I hope you like it.

My name is Brett Bishop and I am a drone pilot with the American forces. I spend my days in a windowless container on a military base in the Nevada desert with my co-worker, Bart. Air conditioning ensures our container is at a constant temperature of 17 degrees. The door must not be opened. We sit in front of 14 computer monitors and four keyboards. The computers hum while we work.

We fly drone aircraft all around the hotspots of the world and we watch. We watch people at work. We watch people at play. We watch people at weddings. We watch people bury their dead. From time to time we press a button and someone at the other side of the world dies.

In October 2006, I was directing a Predator drone over Chenegai in Bajur Agency, Pakistan. We were observing the headmaster of a madrassa, a religious school, who we suspected was training terrorists. The seminary where he was working was in a flat roofed building made of mud. We had been watching the building for approximately two hours when we received the order to fire.

Co-worker Bart pressed the button with his left hand and marked the roof with a laser. The beam locked onto the target.  Years of training kicked in. I pressed the trigger on a joystick and the drone 10,000 kilometres across the world launched a Hellfire missile. There would be 16 seconds to impact.

An infrared camera attached to the drone took images which were transmitted by satellite to the trailer with a five second delay. We watched the monitors as the missile approached its target. Twelve seconds to impact. Eleven. Ten. The missile can be diverted at any time.

Previous to the launch we had been watching the premises. We had observed the students arriving. We were aware of the fact that there were children in the building.

There were four seconds to impact. Three. Two. One. Impact.

I found out the details later when I read about it online. Incidents are not reported in newspapers here. Eighty people died that day. Sixty seven of them were under 17 and one boy was 7 years of age. Three were 8, three were 9, one was 10, four were 11, four were 12……………………………………………………………

 When I heard what Adam Lanza did two months ago when he walked into Sandy Hook Elementary School and murdered 20 seven year old children I thought to myself. 20? In the past six years I have pressed that trigger 300 times in a drone attack over Pakistan. There have been over 3000 casualties. 

 Adam Lanza was deranged. I just follow orders. They say we save lives.