A popular Instagram account that shows Google Maps images of drone strike targets has become a forum for hawkish cheerleading.
Source: instagr.am
Artist James Bridle conceived of Dronestagram — an Instagram account that shows satellite images of locations where recent military drone strikes occurred — as a way to remind people of the reality of drone warfare.
Though the intent might have been to point out the horrors of drone strikes on real targets — "to make these things more visible and immediate," as he told BuzzFeed in November — some people view the project as a way to point out successful missions, as indicated by comments like, "America 1 terrorist 0 Love dronestagram," "Get those sand nigers," and "Blast away. Terrorists be gone!!!"
When political art is opened up to comments on social media, there's no controlling the audience reaction — as corporations have learned again and again when their own campaigns backfire on Twitter or Facebook. It can also happen to a well-crafted artistic anti-war statement.
Comments on the image captioned December 24th: two killed and three injured in the town of Rada'a, Southern Yemen. One of the deaths is believed to be Abdel-Raouf Naseeb, who escaped the first recorded drone strike in Yemen, on Nov 3, 2003.
Source: instagr.am
Comments on an image captioned, January 8th: two strikes on the villages of Khasso Khel and Haidar Khel in North Waziristan. Both strikes destroyed buildings and killed 6-8 people. Retired General Stanley McChrystal told Reuters: "What scares me about drone strikes is how they are perceived around the world. The resentment created by American use of unmanned strikes ... is much greater than the average American appreciates. They are hated on a visceral level, even by people who've never seen one or seen the effects of one."
Source: instagr.am
