Ground Killer Drones: Shut Down Creech!

CODEPINK invites all who love peace to join its Campaign of Non-violent Actions to Ground Killer Drones.

The drone era of endless war began in 2001 with the US invasion of Afghanistan. Then, in 2003, the US invaded Iraq for a second time, resulting in more than a million casualties, fueling civil war and creating millions of refugees. These two wars created a domino effect that savaged five other countries, spreading death and destruction on a continental scale.

Since 2009 CodePink protesters, along with hundreds of other peacemakers, have been arrested at drone bases worldwide. At Creech Air Force Base, because it is the brain of the US’s worldwide killer drone network. At Ramstein AFB, in Germany, the heart of the killer drone network. At Beale AFB, California’s crucial drone surveillance base. And and other bases that extend the killer drone network’s reach worldwide.

We demand that the US government cease the indiscriminate killing, injury, and trauma dealt out to civilians in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Somalia, Iraq, Yemen, Syria, and Libya by military drones and perpetual wars.

CodePink, drone whistle-blowers, and independent researchers all dispute the government’s claim that the use of drones is a surgically precise and effective tool that makes the US safer by enabling "targeted killing" of "terrorists," with minimal collateral damage. On the contrary, thousands of non-combatants, even American citizens, have been killed in covert drone missions, along with the destruction of hospitals, schools, mosques, infrastructure, towns and cities. The risk of blowback attacks is increasing, though proportionally still very small, and the global refugee crisis worsens by the week. Drone attacks, the "face of US militarism," are clearly counter-productive, threatening any chance of even a fragmented appearance of global peace anytime soon. And with President Trump’s administration escalating drone assassination in his first weeks in office, as evidenced by 10 US drone victims in Yemen in his first few days and 49 people killed by a US Reaper drone on March 16 while praying in a mosque near Aleppo, Syria, the urgent need for mass resistance is stronger than ever.

Numerous peace & justice groups, including Nevada Desert Experience, Voices for Creative Nonviolence and Veterans for Peace, are co-sponsors of the 3^rdAnnual Shut Down Creech, 2017, with CODEPINK.An annual collaborative peace convergence, that included participants from 20 different US States last year, takes place again next month across from Creech Air Force Base, a key drone control center, just north of Las Vegas in the Nevada desert.

This weeklong national mobilization to peacefully resist drone killing and global militarization culminates in a mass civil resistance to halt "business as usual" at Creech AFB by blocking commuter traffic entering the gates for as long as possible. It is a united stand, calling for the US government to conduct a fundamental re-evaluation and halt of current targeted killing practices. Participants recognize that the present strategy is losing the war and that drone attacks result in intolerable death and suffering. In November 2015, four Air Force drone veterans who were based at Creech wrote to President Obama: "We came to the realization that the innocent civilians we were killing only fueled the feelings of hatred that ignited terrorism and groups like ISIS, while also serving as a fundamental recruitment tool similar to Guantanamo Bay.This administration and its predecessors have built a drone program that is one of the most devastating driving forces for terrorism and destabilization around the world."

CODEPINK’S campaign of non-violent actions against the US worldwide killer drone network is resisting US militarism right in its tracks. The world desperately needs a U.S. foreign strategy of restraint, cooperation, rebuilding and mutual security. Twice a year CODEPINK organizes extended protests at Creech AFB in an effort to SHUT DOWN CREECH. CODEPINK, Bay Area also demonstrates monthly with others at Occupy Beale AFB in Northern Ca. in an effort to further interrupt business as usual within the U.S. drone network program. Periodically CODEPINK Germany marches with other activists at Ramstein and CODEPINK Japan resists militarism at US bases in Japan. Activists from many other peace organizations across the country persist in their ongoing commitment, resistance and courage to oppose militarized drones, as each new drone base opens.

This year we hope to double the number of people attending anti-drone actions and demanding that the U.S. government ground all killer drones and cease these endless wars! CODEPINK demonstrates because we want our government to stop the senseless killing and destruction and start the rebuilding of hospitals. schools, towns and people’s lives. We hope readers will join us and spread the word that drone strikes perpetuate endless war. They do not make us safer nor will they bring peace!

Please help us make the 3rd Annual Shut Down Creech International Mass Mobilization Against Drone Warfare a more powerful statement against illegal drone killing! Please join CODEPINK and our allies, Nevada Desert Experience, Veterans for Peace, and Voices for Creative Nonviolence, as we continue to stand in solidarity for our 8th year now to oppose the cruelty and crimes against humanity committed at Creech AFB.

When: April 23-29, 2017
Where: Creech Air Force Base, Indian Springs, Nevada

For more information on housing, meals, transportation and more visit us at: ShutDownCreech.blogspot and be sure to register using SDC2017 Registration Form. Join our Facebook page for updates and more info! And follow us on Twitter at @ShutDownCreech .

Contact: CODEPINK, Veterans for Peace, and Nevada Desert Experience

Toby Blomé, CODEPINK ratherbenyckeling@comcast.net 510-541-6874,

Brian Terrell of VCNV and NDE brian@vcnv.org 773-853-1886

Together we are PEACE! SHUT DOWN CREECH NOW!

Toby Blomé is joined SF CODEPINK in 2003, and as a leading organizer locally has organized extensive ongoing protests at US military drone bases at Creech AFB in Nevada, and at Beale AFB in Marysville, California. Her work to halt the illegal targeted assassination program with drones intensified after her participation in the CODEPINK Peace Delegation to Pakistan, where delegates heard first-hand personal stories from family members of US drone victims.

Tim Reese is a member of CODEPINK for 3 years, developed and manages the local website, www.codepinkgoldengate.org. He is actively supporting CODEPINK’s Anti-drone Campaign and is currently expanding the Drone page on the national website: www.codepink.org.