US Predators Provoke Pakistan - surely there must be a better way...

Michael Carmichael: US Predators Provoke Pakistan
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0903/S00339.htm
Saturday, 28 March 2009, 9:16 pm
Opinion: Michael Carmichael

Commenting to the New York Times about the rapidly deteriorating situation in Pakistan, Admiral Dennis Blair, the Director of National Intelligence, admitted, “No one that I have talked to has come up with a grand strategy for that area.”

Given the now official fact of a strategy vacuum for Pakistan as well as the smoldering carcass of US strategy in Afghanistan, the US has continued the Bush Era tactic of launching drone missile strikes against targets the CIA has identified as outposts of Al Qaeda. While the CIA claims that US Predator drones have killed a few of the multitude of ‘senior leaders’ of Al Qaeda, to date the result is far from impressive -- for there is a steadily rising mountain of civilian corpses killed by unmanned missiles that is producing a searing political backlash in the nuclear-armed nation.

Pakistan’s political outrage about the American drones is becoming ominous. Thousands have taken to the streets of Pakistan’s major cities to protest US missile attacks in Waziristan, the tribal regions deemed to be ungovernable that are located in the remote mountain fastness that is daunting terrain for even the world’s most potent military forces – NATO and US units under the direction of the CIA. Foreign office officials in Pakistan call the drone attacks, "counterproductive," and have called for the strikes to be terminated .

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During the presidential campaign, then-candidate Obama was subtly pressured by then-candidates Biden and Clinton from the right who helped raise suspicions about his resolve to fight the War on Terror. To pre-empt suspicions of being weak on terror, Obama made several statements including the point that if elected president, he would authorize US strikes against “actionable” targets in Pakistan based on competent intelligence. At the time, Obama’s position drew groans from Clinton for telegraphing presidential strategy in advance, a position later echoed by John McCain. At the same time, Obama’s statement shocked many of his own supporters who saw him as a dovish alternative to the more hawkish Biden, Clinton and McCain.

As president, Obama promptly authorized the continuation of drone attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan, thus fulfilling his campaign promise to pursue the roots of terror even unto those crafty culprits of Al Qaeda located across the borders of a nuclear-armed neutral state.

Given the limited results of the drones and the rising tide of civilian deaths in context with the political opposition in that nuclear nation, President Obama should ask himself whether the use of robot drones is a wise policy – or not. A plethora of options are arrayed before the president -- from cooperation with the Pakistani military and security forces who should have commando units available for reasonable assignments to aid, education, healthcare and cultural programs designed to stimulate the local economy in Waziristan as well as the rest of Pakistan.

Today from Karachi to Islamabad, throngs are protesting the Zardari government. These insurgent Pakistanis are not happy with their government, nor with the policies still boiling out of what they see as the aggressive and dangerous cauldron of Washington, DC. Right now, nuclear Pakistan is literally a powder keg with a smoldering fuse provoked by the US drone attacks and the steadily rising tide of civilian corpses.

Isn’t it time for a more intelligent strategic vision?



Much more...
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0903/S00339.htm

We want to fight the Taliban but not provoke the Pakistani people anymore than we already have. I do think Obama would be wise to stop the predator bombs. But that's just my opinion.