In high-resolution detail

The title of the Aug. 8 Des Moines Register (page 10A) article was “Remote-control warriors feel stress of battle, too” and it caught my eye as I was flipping through the paper.

As I started reading the article, I wondered why in the world I hadn’t heard or read anything about the information in any other journalistic forum.

With a dateline of March Air Reserve Base, Calif., it started out setting the scene of Air National Guardsmen who are based in California but feel the same battle stress as the war-front soldiers serving in Iraq.

Why so?

Because, while operating Predator drones via remote control, they watch the people they are killing die and often – at military command – the cameras stay at the kill site, assessing damage "in high-resolution detail."

This makes death much more up-close and personal than flying over and dropping bombs on a kill zone. It has resulted in the military's use of psychologists, psychiatrists and chaplains to help these soldiers face their own very intense versions of battlefield stress.

The article says, “Working in air-conditioned trailers, Predator pilots observe the field of battle through a bank of video screens and kill enemy fighters with a few computerized keystrokes. Then, after their shifts are over, they drive home and sleep in their own beds.”

Citing “that whiplash transition”, one Predator pilot described, “It is quite different, going from potentially shooting a missile, then going to your kid’s soccer game.”

Indeed some of the “pilots” and “sensor operators”, many as young as 18, have trouble leaving the images behind after they have killed people, watched them die and hung around via video cameras to see the death and damage…”in high-resolution detail.”

According to military sources quoted in the article, everyone knows the lethal nature of the “jobs” when they go into them.

But can 18-year olds, even those who grew up playing violent video games, truly understand what they will see and what the emotional and psychological repercussions will be when they realize this is not a game and they must watch another human being die as a direct result of their actions…”in high-resolution detail.”

The old warrior, William Tecumseh Sherman, said, “War is hell.”

Today, war technology is hell…”in high-resolution detail.”