NewYork Times; By DECLAN WALSH: Making up is never easy. But as Pakistan and the United States try to restart their troubled relationship after a year of spectacular crises, the difference could come down to drones.
For the Obama administration, facing a faltering war effort and increasingly distrustful allies in Afghanistan, the covertC.I.A. drone strike campaign centered on North and South Waziristan in northwestern Pakistan has acquired new relevance.
Although the drones are best known for targeting senior commanders of Al Qaeda — two more were reported killed in January — they also play a vital role in combating cross-border infiltration from Taliban havens inside Pakistan. Of the 10 confirmed strikes so far this year, 6 hit vehicles filled with fighters that, in several cases, were headed for the Afghan border, a senior United States official said.
“We must protect the troops, and almost all of that stuff is in Waziristan,” said the official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the drone program is classified.
Interviews with militants in those areas leave little doubt that the drones have disrupted their operations, driving fugitive leaders deeper into the mountains. But that matters little in mainstream Pakistan, where public discourse rings with thunderous condemnations of breached sovereignty and civilian casualties.
Categories: Americas, Defence, Pakistan, Politics, Recent Headlines, Terrorism, United States, War
Summary execution is never justified. That goes for all factions in a divide or war.
The United States have been proven to have little notion of diplomacy and whether their list of illegal wars or whatever the list of WikiLeaks cables prove evidence to, America is a rouge nation, they can’t be trusted not to lie, they conquer other countries on some kind of pretence that the entire world has to be homogenous … one word order.
But if every country has to be converted to ‘democracy’ then why don’t they start with Saudi Arabia? And what is democracy anyway? If it is the sort of cloak and dagger politics of the American government then nobody would benefit from it, except the corporations who are the ruling elite. Goldman Sachs owns both Obama and his rival.
A country like America that spends more than half their Gross Domestic Product on a war and killing machine is a very dangerous country indeed. With psychopathic leaders.
I’m not religious, I am purely secular. Religion is just another tool for oppression and corporate fraud and greed, murder and guilt. An insolence to the high and mighty (God/Allah).
More drone strikes from USA needed please! (well, interesting post. Sorry we needed to censor it due to the kind of language used (not sure how it could be said politely though)…