Fellow activists, I’m here today to lead you in this protest for the abolishment of the United States Drone strikes. My name is Jackson and you may be wondering if I’m qualified to talk about drones but rest assured I am. I served for the US army in Iraq and Afghanistan from 2002-2007 and I have witnessed the devastating effects that the drones are having first hand. Most importantly, drones kill a huge number of innocent civilians, and we are now seeing an increased risk of our enemies retaliating and using drones against us, and on a more practical level as most of you will know the drone programme is extremely expensive especially in today’s economic environment.

The most upsetting effect that drones are having is the killing of innocent civilians. On average more than 1 innocent civilian is in killed in every drone strike. When Barrack Obama first came to power there was a wave of optimism that America would take a more diplomatic and humanitarian approach to the on-going disputes in the Middle East. Indeed, he was even awarded a Nobel Peace Prize in his first year in office. However he had blood on his hands after being President for just 3 days, it was his first drone strike and killed at least 9 innocent civilians, most of these were all from one family. Another incident was Din Mohammad, who had the misfortune of neighbouring militants reported to be part of the Haggani Network, who are fighting against the United States in Afghanistan in Danda Darpakhel, North