Obama? Missle strikes in Pakistan?

[jillan]

Friday, January 23, 2009; 1:49 PM
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Jan. 23 -- At least 20 people were killed in northwest Pakistan near the border of Afghanistan on Friday in two suspected U.S. missile strikes, marking the first such attack in Pakistan's tribal areas since President Obama's inauguration.

A U.S. Predator drone fired three missiles at a compound about two miles from the town of Mirali in the tribal area of North Waziristan about 5:15 p.m., according to a Pakistani security official and local residents. The precision strike leveled a compound, which was owned by local tribal elder Khalil Malik, killing at least 10 suspected militants, including five foreign nationals, according to the Pakistani security official. The site of the attack is about 30 miles east of the Afghan border

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/23/AR2009012301220.html?hpid=topnews




:shrug:

What's going on?

[Drunken Irishman]

1. Wouldn't it be funny if he killed bin Laden within his first week of office?

That would be the end of any talk about history judging Bush in better light.

[Why Syzygy]

3. OMG!

I never thought of that! What if, indeed.

[skeewee08]

10. That would be great:-) Poor Bushie would just cry!

[bigtree]

11. don't you think that's been the aim all along?

. . . with such devastating results for innocents in our way?

We wouldn't subject our own citizens to the collateral effects of such attacks.

[EFerrari]

13. A capture would be much better. We have too many people cheering

extra legal shit as it is. That's how our government managed to engage in torture and spying all this time.

[bigtree]

22. and the collateral effects of these blunt attacks

. . . are counterproductively fostering and fueling even more violent opposition to the U.S., our interests and our allies.

[Drunken Irishman]

32. That too.

[Sebastian Doyle]

2. I don't think any details have come out yet, but......

Just imagine every last Repuke crapping their pants if Obama managed to do on his third day in office, what the Chimp couldn't do in 7 years.


(For the record, I believe Tim Osman's been dead since at least 2002, but just for sake of argument.....)

[Why Syzygy]

5. I'll be cooking crow (tofu crow)

for all those who said Obama wanted to LOSE THE WAR. (Palin and her misfits.)

[bigtree]

28. we're at 'war' against the effects of resistance to our own opportunistic militarism

. . . hard to continue all of that and 'win' anything resembling safety and security. You'd think that the lessons of the last administration would dissuade that type of thinking.

[Why Syzygy]

31. That was how McCain/Palin

explained our desire to withdraw troops from Iraq, "losing the war".

[Skip Intro]

33. Amen. You speak the truth, bigtree.

Several times over in this thread.

[sandnsea]

4. He said he would

I hope he changes tactics soon, but it's probably not a bad thing that he let the world know he isn't a pushover too. Hopefully this will be the last unless he has bin laden in his sites.

[bigtree]

14. I remember the new President Clinton made the same type of demonstrative attack on Iraq

. . . ended up demolishing an occupied apartment building.

[jillan]

25. oh yeah - I remember that.

Way to go.

At least Obama didn't make that mistake.

[bigtree]

27. It's still not clear just who it was that was killed.

In the report, at least five individuals killed were not identified as hostile or suspect of any threat to us.

[jillan]

29. You mean from today?

If so - this is what it said in the link I posted:

. The precision strike leveled a compound, which was owned by local tribal elder Khalil Malik, killing at least 10 suspected militants, including five foreign nationals, according to the Pakistani security official.

So maybe we did a good thing. ugh.

[bigtree]

30. you'd have to believe that all of the individuals we kill are insurgent

. . . because that's always the military line, until there's some wide consensus of photo and other evidence to disprove them.

here's the account I found this morning . . .

"At least five of the dead were identified as foreign militants, an intelligence officer said."

One drone fired three missiles into the village of Zharki in North Waziristan, hitting two buildings over the space of 10 minutes, the security officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

At least 10 people were killed, they said. Their names were not released.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hkiMxbHNH0BqgpWA2ZG6VD6wVTmAD95SUIO00


How the heck do we know who we're killing when we fire these missiles and deploy these bombers and drones across sovereign borders an attack from miles up in the air? There have been too many accounts of collateral killings of innocents to justify continuing, in my view.It's just imperialistic to suppose that our country is justified in this. We wouldn't allow ANYONE to stage this type of retaliation across our own sovereign borders against our own citizens. Yet, many just accept, without complaint or protest, the lives lost in other countries in the way of these types of dubious, retaliatory attacks from the air.

[G_j]

6. 10 suspected militants, including five foreign nationals,

what does that mean? Do we have the right to kill anyone who is a suspected "militant" or a "foreign national"?

[Pirate Smile]

7. He was arguing for this type of thing all by himself and caught a lot of shit for it before BushCo

started doing it in secret.

No one should be surprised that Obama would continue it.

Sometimes it seems like people weren't listening to him during the campaign.

[jillan]

8. CNN talking about it now.

Pakistan not happy about it at all.
They want diplomacy. (So do I!!!)


I guess that we have the right to do this whenever we want....a little leftover from bsh.

[bigtree]

9. why do you hate Obama?

:sarcasm:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x4895748

[jillan]

18. I'm glad you put that sarcasm thingy there....I love Obama. Even at times like these.

Sorry - I didn't see your post.

[spoony]

12. I hate that the US doesn't own up to these strikes

From the article:
"The United States generally does not comment on or confirm whether it is behind missile attacks."

Why not? If the officials think they have a good enough cause to launch missiles and kill people, why not stand by it by admitting they're behind it? If they don't want to be held accountable, then don't fire.

[bigtree]

15. 'senior officials' say . . .

The CIA's bombing campaign against al Qaeda leadership in Pakistan continued with two more attacks today, an indication, senior officials say, that President Barack Obama has approved the U.S. strategy that has killed at least eight of al Qaeda's top 20 leaders since July 2008.

http://www.abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=6718124&page=1

[spoony]

17. I know, but it's always so nebulous and shadowy

Note they never give their names when they admit we did it. It makes things sound bad, too much secrecy after the fact. And that's where transparency should come in, after the fact. I'm not saying they should share planning details or anything, but when the dust settles the US should be able to say into a microphone, "That was us, and we had a good reason."

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

16. We Elected Obama, Not Kooky Kucinich.

[jillan]

19. Aren't you a teeny bit surprised bu this news?

I guess I wasn't expecting this so soon.

[bigtree]

20. we are not captive, submissive subjects of any American rule

. . . Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

[DevonRex]

21. If this is a compound that houses militants who train their people to attack our soldiers

and innocent Afghani people, then I'm all for it. There are a couple of things we all need to remember about these kinds of events.

1. Pakistan has to say they don't like it because they have a sizeable extremist population.

2. Pakistan may indeed have cooperated in searching out the compound and verifying the location and its mission and the people involved.

The BIG hint regarding this is that we already have the information about foreign nationals and suspected militants being killed. If Pakistan had not been in on it, that information would not have been given out. In this way, they hope to satisfy all their objectives. They get rid of militants and foreign nationals without bearing the brunt of the anger of their own extremist people. They cement an alliance with the US and our new President in a subtle way that they hope Westerners pick up on.

[bigtree]

24. you never get accounts that we can trust on these strikes

. . . but it's clear that innocent civilians are being killed.

I though I understood that the administration was beginning talks on cooperation in this effort. Pakistan officials from the top down are opposed to these attacks. To claim that there's some disingenuous or undue self-interest in that position is typical of an American perspective from the relative safety within our own defended borders.

There should be more consideration of the counterproductive effects of these blunt attacks and a comprehensive reconsideration of the goals and methods in this seemingly endless 'terror war' that looks like a seamless continuation of Bush's, with this attack.

[Stinky The Clown]

23. I'm making ......

[jillan]

26. omg - you are making me crave popcorn.

That looks so good! :9