(Drone Approval in Pakistan) Gunboats and gurkhas in the American Imperium

[Duct Tape]

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Hoodbhoy claims that he has to base his argument on evidence whose credibility he himself cannot vouch for because a 'scientific survey of attitudes in FATA in today's dangerous circumstances is impossible'. This bespeaks laziness or dishonesty because a scientific survey of attitudes had indeed been conducted and widely reported. Pakistan's liberal hawks chose to ignore it because its findings did not accord with the worldview they had been projecting on the citizens of FATA. The poll conducted by the New America Foundation (itself a booster of the drone war) and Terror Free Tomorrow found 76 percent of the respondents opposed to drone attacks (only 16 percent deemed them accurate), 87 percent opposed to US military action against the Taliban and Al Qaeda, and that 59 percent consider suicide bombings against the US military justified.

So does that make them 'cheerleaders for these terrorists' as the hawks would have it? Not quite. The same poll also found 77 percent opposed to the presence of Al Qaeda in the region, 69 percent opposed to the Pakistani Taliban, and 61 percent to the Afghan Taliban. However, at the same time four times as many identified the US as most responsible for the violence compared to the Pakistani Taliban. It also found 83 percent opposition to suicide bombings against the Pakistani military and police.

But perhaps most disturbingly for the liberal hawks, the poll also revealed that the most popular political party in the region was the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, the one party that has taken the most uncompromising line against the drone attacks. Its leader, the former cricketing legend Imran Khan, is a hate figure among Pakistani liberal hawks and was declared 'one of the forces of darkness' by their tribune Fahat Taj. Darkness has evidently claimed wider territory since, according to a June 2011 Pew survey, at 68 percent the antiwar Khan has the highest approval rating of any public figure in Pakistan.

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2011/07/20117145247361110.html

[midnight]

1. So the forces of darkness are against drone attacks and that is a popular sediment with the people,

but the liberal hawks don't like this.... because the liberal hawks like drones... Sounds like if the forces of darkness get their way.... Peace trumps money....