To the Editor:

U.S. drones kill without warning. There are no screaming jets, no whirling helicopter blades, no rumbling tanks, no boots on the ground. Incineration and death happen instantaneously. In a flash the attack is over, the flesh burned, the bones broken, lives lost. But the damage lingers forever.

Since 2004 thousands of Pakistanis have been killed by U.S. drones, many purportedly "militants" but many were innocent men, women, and children. How would you react if your mother or father, sister or brother, wife or husband, child or loved one was callously incinerated in an attack by a faceless, distant, and remote entity? These drone horrors are being visited upon innocent Pakistanis in our name, by our government, with our tax dollars. Paki Wieland recently travelled with a CodePink delegation to Pakistan and will be speaking about human rights concerns and her experiences in the region at the New Paltz Village Hall on Friday, March 1 at 7 PM. Come and find out more about what is being done in your name with your tax dollars. For more information go to www.mideastcrisis.org.

Eli Kassirer
New Paltz