Slowly some information is seeping through the secret defences of the American army. Maybe one day it will be given a name, ‘The Mutiny of the Drone Warriors.’

Already for a number of years have I been wondering about the mental health of people who, installed in comfortable armchairs, their favourite drink on the table, kill other people half a world away, with the push of a button. Unmanned, small aeroplanes, carrying enough firepower to destroy a primitive village can now be sent by the American military anywhere in the world to kill anyone that the army designates. These planes, guided by ‘pilots’ who are maybe 10 000 kilometers away from the killing grounds, function with elaborate computers and precision cameras. The military boffins of the Pentagon explain seriously that this kind of warfare is lifesaving!

During the second half of the previous century nothing noteworthy has been invented except computers, which led to the chaos we call the internet today. All western style countries have debts that can never be paid and no one has a notion how this disaster will be resolved. But the United States, the biggest debt ridden country of the world, has invented life-saving warfare!

The perpetrators of this warfare have to choose their soldiers carefully. Evidently these boys or girls (yes, even the lassies!) must be computer savvy with quick reactions and understand how a plane flies. From the age of 18 they are recruited by the US military because there appears to be a scarcity of proper human material for this deadly function. After an appropriate training these youngsters soon become distance killers with their missile carrying robot planes. At times they observe their future targets for weeks on end hoping for a meeting where the body count might be higher. The targets are often people with families and I will only describe one attack. When a missile is launched it takes about 20 seconds to hit the target, at 10 seconds the missile can still be deviated, at 7 seconds nothing can be changed anymore. This young distance killer had been given the order by his superior officer to kill and had launched one of his fine Hellcat rockets. As he watched his missile close up he saw a little boy come around the corner of a shed. Too late!..6 seconds! Kabloodyboom!

In his final report his superior officer changed ’little boy’ into ‘small dog’.

This young fellow is not employed by the USAir Force anymore. He lives with his mother and describes his dreams as infrared. I have the impression that his mind is irreparably buggered up and he might well appear one day, some place, shooting a lot of people. Pentagon’s life-saving warfare seems to be producing thousands of wrecked minds in people younger than 24 years whose only defence now seems to be dumb mutiny against the military.

The army has always been adept to recruit and train young people to become highly efficient killers. These officers were and are very proud of their snipers who can kill with a rifle at more than half a kilometre and chaps that barehandedly wipe out their adversaries. However, these specialists were born tough characters already, often with criminal tendencies as some of their after army career choices denote.

These recent computer killers are not in the same tough category. To succeed in their killing missions they have to be insightful, sensitive to the moods of their targets and very intelligent to use the tools at their disposition. The minds of these young people, abducted by the military, will probably soon experience one sentiment: ‘Culpable!’