(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - It is the first time a British Reaper drone has been responsible for civilian deaths since the British Royal Air Force began using the pilotless aircraft over the war-weary nation in 2007. We interviewed Mike Prysner, an Iraq War veteran, who says the US government wages wars around the world in pursuit of an empire which is dominated by Western business interests. Q: This opens up another frontier in this almost ten-year old US-led war. Tell us the significance of what this means: we have a UK drone that is controlled from a US Air Force base in Nevada. What does this mean? Prysner: This is nothing new; civilians being killed in drone attacks from people operating computer screens, safe at home in the US who go home to their families afterwards. This is a daily occurrence where civilians are killed by drones in Pakistan, in Somalia, in Yemen and many other places around the world. The fact that we are seeing the UK doing it as well signals a new era, a new stage in warfare by imperialist powers. The use of drones really serves a very important function for them, for two reasons: there is political fallout when soldiers and actual personnel are used to carry out attacks and that kind of create the ability to have robots kind of do the job that you have people do; you get a fallout when soldiers and service members are killed in combat. It also serves the function of trying to automate combat and using robots and drones, robot controlled tanks that we will be seeing over the next years. This serves their purpose well because there is always the potential for rebellions within the ranks military as we have seen in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; once the soldiers on the ground see the reality that they are taking part in, see the atrocities and the loss of civilian life, they begin to turn against the wars and fight against them. Therefore, the use of drone and such prevent that from happening as well. Q: It has been some time since the UK has been involved in terms of their drones but does it mean that there is a shift in responsibility here in terms of the mandate that this falls under: under what orders and why is that the UK is involved? Also, are we going to see other countries that have drone technology being involved in the war in Afghanistan? Prysner: We know that the UK and all the other coalition partners in the war in Afghanistan are junior partners to the US. It is the US that is leading the war effort, it is the US that is in command, and it is the US that is calling the shot. Yes, we did see Robert Gates before his departure really lash out at the other members of NATO and UN and these other coalitions. It is the US imperialism that is bearing the cost and most of the responsibility. So there is pressure that is being put on these coalition counties to take the pressure off the US and that is because there is mounting opposition to the wars here in the US, the US government trying to minimize its role as much as possible, it is a priority to avoid political fallout here at home. Q: So who is accountable here? Does one point the finger at the other because after all what we are looking at is loss of lives? Prysner: Yes, we know that this year civilian casualties are hitting record numbers. Last year there were a record number of civilian casualties and it has grown every single year. People will point the finger first and foremost at the US government that launched the invasion and continued occupation in Afghanistan and in Iraq and of course the bombing of the Pakistan as well and every single power that is in lines with them is doing that; there is absolutely no interest to protect the civilians in Afghanistan or in Iraq, there is no interest in deafening their own countries from terrorist acts. These wars are in pursuit of an empire, an empire dominated by Western Business interests and this is what it is about and these are the people that are responsible for it. These recent civilian deaths that were mentioned in these reports but really the hundreds of thousands of civilians, there are really more than a million this past decade in the Middle East and Southeast Asia.
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