Drone: A US weapon of choice

[The Northerner]

Gen Musharraf who had accepted all the seven demands of USA in September 2001 had also agreed to allow employment of drones for acquisition of intelligence. However, unmanned Predator was offensively fired for the first time on June 18, 2004 in South Waziristan (SW) to kill Taliban leader Nek Muhammad when he signed a peace deal with the Army. In 2005, two strikes took place on 14 May and 30 November killing seven people. On 13 January 2006, a house in Damadola village in Bajaur was targeted in which several sleeping women and children were killed. Another drone strike was made against a religious seminary in village Chenagai in Bajaur on 30 October 2006 killing 80 young students. This strike was conducted a day before a peace deal was to be signed with the Taliban in Bajaur. The two strikes in Bajaur were intended to kill Ayman al-Zawahiri. Rather than questioning Washington and warning it to refrain from such unfriendly acts, the Army imprudently took the blame to prevent rise of anti-Americanism. It stirred up anti-Army sentiments among people of FATA.

In 2007, four drone strikes took place in the months of January, April, June and November killing 74 persons. In 2008 the number of attacks rose to 36 resulting in deaths of 296. Most strikes were in North Waziristan (NW) and SW. After Barack Obama replaced George Bush, rate of strikes in January 2009 accelerated to 55 and death toll to 709. The whole brunt came on SW and NW. There were reports in September last that the US military was secretly diverting more drones and weaponry from Afghanistan and deploying along Pakistan border. This was in line with the US stated fears that FATA in general and NW in particular had become the hub centre of terrorism and base of al-Qaeda leadership. In 2010 the death toll reached 1000 as a result of 225 strikes, which was the heaviest. 51 strikes were made between September and December 2010 killing 451 people. Maximum attacks came against NW and SW, with 98% strikes in NW.

Total drone strikes from 2004 till 13 April 2011 were 246 murdering 2306. Well over 90% of 2306 killed were unarmed civilians. Kenneth Anderson says that Obama administration unambiguously believes in the strategic advantage of drone policy because it offers ‘best hope for regional stability and success in dealing with al-Qaeda and incorrigible Taliban’. The excessive use of drones has turned our tribal belt into killing field. The severe backlash has come in the form of suicide, bomb and terrorist attacks in cities killing over 22000 innocent civilians.

The policy is domestically saleable in USA since it doesn’t endanger lives of troops on ground. The US is justifying excessive use of drones in NW on the plea that since Pak Army is not launching a military operation in that region, drones are the only substitute available to win war without proclaiming a new war in Pakistan. Drones have been described as the weapons of choice in fighting al-Qaeda. The US has however not been able to offer any legal justification for the attacks but covers it up by saying that these are effective means. The US objects to extra judicial killings of terrorists but feels no compunction in resorting to target killings to kill terrorists and unarmed civilians.

Read more: http://pakobserver.net/detailnews.asp?id=88993

[bighart]

1. Drone Strikes by Year

Year Strikes Number Killed
2004 1 5
2005 2 7
2006 2 23
2007 4 77
2008 33 313
2009 53 724
2010 118 993
2011 22 148
Total 234 2,290

This is wrong on so many levels.

[The Northerner]

5. +100

[The Midway Rebel]

2. Our tax dollars and technology used to kill poor mofo's in mud huts.

Fucked up shit is fucked up.

[gratuitous]

3. How would we react?

Let's just say someone prevailed on Cuba to serve as a staging area for drone attacks (or Rick Scott got a fat kickback to allow some foreign country to park a shitload of drones in Florida, and don't think he wouldn't for the right price). And, under the rubric of fighting the war on terror, that foreign power started raining down a little death from above in the United States. They took out some really bad people, like (I dunno) heroin dealers who sold to grade schoolers or something. What would be our response to that foreign power if in killing the heroin dealer, they also took out three or four houses around him?

Well, I'm sure that as dedicated as we are to a drug-free workplace, we would have no trouble with this. Eggs, omelettes, you know. Right? And anyone that objected would probably be a drug dealer sympathizer or someone who just Hated freedom.

[sabrina 1]

4. Mathematically speaking to answer your question,

what is the ratio of our killing in revenge for 9/11? Apparently we have killed over one million people so, since I'm not very good at math, what is the ratio of one million to a little under 3,000?

If someone was flying drones across our border killing either good guys or bad, we would probably kill at least another million human beings in retaliation.

The people of Afghanistan and of Pakistan have protested for years against these cowardly weapons. They have pressured their governments to stop their use and the killing of innocent civilians. Karzai has demanded, in response to the anger of his own people, that the US stop using them.

People in Pakistan have tried everything to impress on the US the waste of lives they are responsible. All to no avail. We do not listen to the plebs or to our puppet government when there is money to be made. To most of the world now we ARE the bad guys.