I know a kid from a tribal area that bikes several miles a day to go to school in Sana’a. His family have had drone aircraft hover over their homes. One day they could step in the capital city and come home to see their entire world shattered (literally) or worse a drone could strike their home while they’re inside. The only thing worse than instantly being killed is sustaining horrific injuries without any medical facilities nearby and succumbing to a slow, painful death. This is the sad reality that many Yemenis in the rural areas are forced to endure.

When we say we hate America, we don’t mean individual citizens. I wish Americans would step outside of their narcissism for a second to understand that the term ‘America’ is applied in a political sense here. We don’t wish harm on American people, because ultimately they’re not the ones responsible for what were forced to go through. We mean the imperialism, the militarism, the warfare that’s attached to America, the forced destabilization of our country, the dwindling economy, the rampant distrust of the West which therein festers into a vulnerability that’s turned most of these newer ‘militants’ onto the idea of terrorism. It’s a vicious cycle, you see. The more innocent people killed, the increase in extremist activity, which justifies even more drone strikes and it eventually will snowball into unforeseen chaos.

Of course the individual American isn’t responsible for this, but citizens of the U.S. need to understand that it’s their tax dollars that fund this weaponry. It’s their supposed protection that’s being protected at the cost of our lives, livelihoods, stability and economical comfort. Whether or not Americans like, they are inevitably a part of this killing machine and not directly lobbying, protesting and holding their government accountable is complicity. It’s the allowance of our deaths.