from my dear friends heather and brian:
We returned to the United States with new perspectives on our seemingly endless “War on Terror.” Now, when we think of Pakistan, we first think about the warm smiles, gentle handshakes, bright patterns of fabric, and hours of laughter with students, faculty, and new friends. When we think of the U.S. drone strikes, we no longer see the thousands of people killed as a cold statistic but rather as a series of individual and devastating stories of mothers, fathers, and children. As two individuals, we don’t have the power to stop the drones ourselves. We do, however, have the ability to ask provocative questions to spread social awareness: If we can send unmanned aerial vehicles over a sovereign country to kill thousands of people without judge or jury, what is to prevent another country from doing that to us? What would drone strikes look like if we were the targets rather than unknown people in a place too distant to imagine? More here.