Dead elephants
As I wrote during my congressional campaigns in May 2013, you can read it here, I found a good use for our drones.
It’s protecting African elephants from extermination by poachers that are killing them en masse for their ivory tusks. They fetch a fortune in Asia.
Since then, the poachers have industrialized their killing by using helicopters to kill entire herds (about 100 animals per day) with machine guns , then using chain saws to cut off the tusks from the dead and dying animals before flying away.
The BBC reports that terrorist organizations including Boko Haram (they are the ones abducting hundreds of children to be sold into slavery) as well as Al Qaeda-affiliated al-Shabab and Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army are involved.
Apparently the terrorist organizations have developed a supply chain to deliver the tusks to Asian buyers.
Why? Think $350,000 per dead elephant for that ivory. A great business for the terrorists; not so good for the elephants.
So what is Washington doing? Nothing; just squabbling like children with one another as usual.
What our naive president could do if he had any common sense (the jury is out) is to have armed drones fly in the elephant populated areas, with permission of those governments.
When the terrorists kill the elephants from helicopters they can be given a taste of Hellfire missiles. The helicopter slaughters would end quickly.
It would be a great public relations gesture, as the Chinese build railroads, schools and hospitals for the Africans (in exchange for raw materials for their industrial machine) and we just kill people claiming that all of the victims, from age 1 to 100 are terrorists or militants. We just make more enemies.
Those Predator drones can also patrol for ground based attacks and disrupt them as well. Will our government do that? No, they are too busy arguing like spoiled brats.
Congress needs adults running the show, not children.
Editor’s note, February 7, 2016
The Kenyans have got it right.
Click on the picture to see the story.
