US drone strikes, indiscriminate killing: Tim King

Press TV has conducted an interview with Tim King, editor of salem-news.com, about the UN Human Rights Watch calling on the United States to investigate a fatal drone strike on a wedding ceremony in Yemen in December.

What follows is an approximate transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Mr. King, it is not this only attack that US has carried out, I mean US has carried out other attacks besides this not only in Yemen but of course other countries as well. The question is that what is the long-term strategy of this drone program?

King: I think it is very important to note that among circles here in America this is one of the most disgust subjects. There is nothing that bothers Americans, at least thinking Americans more, than this whole idea of the drone strike.

Where does it go from here? It seems to me that if the US does it long enough that everyone else would eventually do it too, it is such a terrible thing to practice this faceless warfare where people are sitting in a building in the United States deciding how to take this indiscriminate killing to new levels all the time. It is a very disturbing thing. I do not know where it is going. When I was covering the war in Iraq I was around a drone squadron. It is very disturbing what these things are capable of doing.
Press TV: And of course there are other concerns about the fact that the complicity of those countries who host these drones. I mean that is another issue of concern?

King: You know all this goes back to the money. You know the Americans go to such extravagant efforts to place their military in these places so that they can launch hostile attacks toward people who again so often are just the wrong targets, innocent targets, people who are just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

And this of course is a problem with Israel-Palestine also. We know that Gaza is often struck by drones and there is just no way of knowing the damage that they cause and I do not think we can even tell the number of innocent victims.

Press TV: And of course the main question is that will America be brought to justice for this drone program and the death of many civilians?

King: Well again back to what I said in the beginning it is so troubling to Americans, there are so many people here who are raising their voices about this and even people that do not have as much of a thought, when you really make them think about it, they have to admit that this is indiscriminate killing.

I do think that it is possible that the US can be held to account for this. War crime courts are in place … I really find it difficult to see America being taken to task the way it should be but I do think that things can happen that can maybe bring some degree of accountability, I hope.