Pakistan says U.S. not listening: drone strikes must stop

[steve2470]

Source: Reuters

(Reuters) - Pakistan has spelt out in no uncertain terms that U.S. drone aircraft strikes against militants inside its territory must stop, but Washington is not listening, the country's foreign minister said.

"On drones, the language is clear: a clear cessation of drone strikes," Hina Rabbani Khar said.

"I maintain the position that we'd told them categorically before. But they did not listen. I hope their listening will improve," she told Reuters in an interview late on Wednesday.

The attacks by the unmanned aircraft from Afghanistan, which U.S. officials say are highly effective against militants, fuel anti-American sentiment in Pakistan because they are seen as violations of sovereignty that inflict civilian casualties.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/26/us-pakistan-minister-drones-idUSBRE83P0AM20120426

[msongs]

1. "washington" caves to repubs, pakistanis need to change their title lol nt

[cbrer]

2. Pakistan is listening quite well

There are those Pakistanis who are getting wealthy by allowing American drone strikes, and blocking attempts to control their use. Follow the money...

[cosmicone]

3. When is Pakistan going to dismantle its terror apparatus? n/t

[EFerrari]

4. When we stop funding it?

[Hugabear]

5. The US is listening - they just don't give a flying fuck

The US has long shown that it doesn't give a flying fuck what anyone in the world thinks.

If we're willing to piss off the Russians by expanding NATO or deploying anti-missile technology, I doubt we're going to care if Pakistan objects to using drones to violate their sovereignty.

[closeupready]

8. This. End of Thread.

nt

[sendero]

6. As soon as Pakistan..

... stops aiding the militants, I'm sure our listening ears will work better.

[Comrade Grumpy]

7. The US needs to take its drones and go home.

Get out of Afghanistan and Pakistan and concentrate on making the US a better country.

[Poll_Blind]

9. The US won't even think about stopping until Pakistan starts shooting them down.

I'd say this has been true for about a year now. NATO supply lines are regularly attacked by proxies of the Paksitani intelligence/military complex, and even that's not really slowing us down. For all intents are purposes, we're in a soft war with Pakistan. We regularly bomb targets within their territory and frequently don't ask permission to do so.

On the other hand, the Pakistani government are bad actors in this play and know if they can wait out the US until it withdraws from Afghanistan, they'll have free reign to continue to cultivate the types of terror groups they use in proxy battles with India. See: Mumbai Bombing.

We should be out of Afghanistan, out of Pakistan, like yesterday.

PB