Pat Chaffee, reflections on the 2012 Pakistan Delegation

“We are still finding body pieces.”
“My job was to gather the body pieces after an IED explosion, trying to keep pieces on one body together.”
“My uncles were cut in pieces.”

I heard the first statement when I volunteered at the rest station set up for first responders
in St. Peter’s church near Ground Zero. The second statement I heard during an NPR interview with a marine.
I heard the third statement as I sat on the floor in the office of the Foundation for
Fundamental Rights (FFR) in Islamabad, an organization that provides legal aid for victims of U.S. drone attacks in Pakistan. Shahzad Akbar, founder of FFP, had invited—or more accurately, challenged—Medea Benjamin, co-founder of the anti-war activist group CODEPINK to bring a delegation to Pakistan to meet with victims and survivors of drone attacks. Read More

Pat Chaffee, reflections on 2012 Pakistan Delegation

Azkar wanted to tell his story. He approached Paki Wieland, one of the Code Pink
peace delegates mingling with the crowd of Pakistani and international journalists in the large
hall of the Islamabad Marriot Hotel. Paki switched on her voice recorder. I drew closer to
listen.
“My young cousin,” said Azkar, “was a civil engineer. He was helping to build up our
country.” Embittered against the United States and NATO for the carnage caused by drones, he
joined the militants. Azkar’s cousin knew these people. They were his friends and neighbors.
They were teachers, mothers, masons, goatherds. “He trained for two or three years to be a
suicide bomber. He blew himself up. Such a loss for Pakistan.” Read More