U.S. drone attacks in Pakistan get mixed response

[unhappycamper]

U.S. drone attacks in Pakistan get mixed response
By Alex Rodriguez and David Zucchino, Los Angeles Times
Stars and Stripes online edition, Sunday, May 16, 2010

KUNDIAN, Pakistan — Their whir is unmistakable, a buzzing hum that prompts the tribespeople of Waziristan to refer to the fleet of armed U.S. drone aircraft hovering overhead as machay, or wasps.

The Khan family never heard it. They had been sleeping for an hour when a Hellfire missile pierced their mud hut on an August night in 2008. Black smoke and dust choked villagers as they dug through the rubble.

Four-year-old Zeerak's legs were severed. His sister Maria, 3, was badly scorched. Both were dead. When their cousin Irfan, 16, saw them, he gently curled them into his arms, squeezed the rumpled bodies to his chest, lightly kissed their faces, and slid into a stupor.

Drones have transformed combat against Islamic militants in Pakistan's tribal areas, the rugged belt of villages and badlands hugging the border with Afghanistan. Since 2004, analysts say, Predator and Reaper drones operated by the CIA have killed at least 15 senior al-Qaida commanders, as well as several top Pakistani Taliban leaders and hundreds of fighters.

The small unmanned planes can hover for hours while gathering infrared camera footage. Onboard lasers pinpoint targets for supersonic Hellfire missiles or 500-pound bombs. The attacks cost no American lives.



unhappycamper comment: Was that 15 number ones, twos, or a mixture?

[No DUplicitous DUpe]

1. I don't have a mixed response...

Although I "generally" am happy with President Obama's policy's, one that I am NOT happy with is the use of drones to kill (bomb) from the air. My most important voting issue is a reduction (to zero) in the deaths of innocent civilians, both from war and the death penalty. On this, I have been disappointed with his leadership.

[Robb]

2. See, I do.

I'm more "generally" unhappy with this President's policies, particularly on the domestic front. I think I've made that pretty clear.

But missile strikes in Waziristan? I support them, wholeheartedly. That is where the war is. I see no difference between the "drones" and any other military campaign since the first sniper. The only reasonable distinction is that they apparently are being operated in part by the CIA, which places them on unsure combatant footing, IMO.

And the dramatic reduction in number of civilians killed by them -- especially considering the huge ramping-up of strikes -- speaks to me of a president actually trying to win the war, much more so than any increase in troops in Afghanistan.

You may never see your "zero innocent deaths" number, because it can always be argued someone in a party is "innocent."

[Soylent Brice]

3. there is another way.

"Therefore one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the most skillful. Seizing the enemy without fighting is the most skillful."

-Sun Tzu
The Art of War

[No DUplicitous DUpe]

4. Is this how we are trying to win the hearts and minds of the Pakistanis?

I guess those villagers shouldn't concern themselves with the women and children killed, as they are just collateral damage.

How do we target?
On whose authority do will kill by remote control?
Will General McChrystal apologize to the survivors of the innocents killed?
How much money do tipsters get for fingering a certain house or village as 'militant'?

And we get to PAY for this evil in the name of 'security'? This kind of shit will make us hated for a thousand years over there and they call it 'security'? I call it madness. We're basically daring angry people to come bomb us here. I really wonder if we killed even one actual murderer with our drone attacks.

No evidence. No trial. No follow-up. Just bomb, bomb away. Summary executions of *suspects* without charges, arrest, trial or sentencing. Not very "democratic" in my eyes.

This policy makes me sick to my stomach. It disgusted me during the Bush Administration, and its continuation under President Obama is not the hope and change I voted for.

[Robb]

5. Actually, Obama *escalated* this program.

Part of a campaign promise I didn't expect to be fulfilled. I'm glad it was, because it will speed the end of this war much faster than troops on the ground in Afghanistan.