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Andrew Cockburn : Killer Drones

Posted on August 17, 2015 Updated on August 17, 2015

The Garden Theatre

Charlotte Square

 17th August 2015

On a beautiful sunny Monday, Divine arrived at Charlotte Square, host to The International Book Festival. I made haste to the press office to pick up my accreditation, pass and ticket for Andrew Cockburn’s interview and launch of his new book. Killl Chain : The Rise of the High-Tech Assassins. I couldn’t believe how much interest such a subject matter would draw. I was shocked at the length of the queue that seemed to weave the length of Charlotte Square. True enough, Andrew Cockburn had a full house. This was quite a scoop because the new book he was launching, was more or less just off the press. This proved to be a very interesting hour, learning about the inaccuracy of the killing drones. We heard lots of different tales that described why these things are a bad idea and how they are purposely built to cause as much mayhem as possible in the Middle East..

Mr Cockburn was very knowledgeable indeed and was able to answer the audiences’ questions with informative ease. Finding out that these remote control killing devices are controlled by people in a Las Vegas office made for compelling disgust. My contempt for the inhuman practices of the American military forces or indeed war in general became enforced this afternoon.  My own question would have been, had I put my hand up. How do we change things? How do the people who have had their families wiped out by some psycho in Las Vegas, playing Space Invaders with real people in a different country. Heal from such circumstances. We heard tales of children, mothers and Men that had fallen foul to the accuracy of these awful things! How the President of The United States Of America endorses the use of Drones. Knowing full well the calamity that they are causing innocent folk. It is after all, as Mr Cockburn quoted.  Big Business. It was an awful wake up call. As David Bowie Sang, “I’m Afraid Of Americans!” 

I forwent the post show booksigning by Mr Cockburn and headed for some therapy.

Reviewer : Mark ‘Divine’ Calvert