The strike came as Pakistani-U.S. relations are struggling since the unilateral American raid that killed bin Laden in the northwest Pakistani garrison town of Abbottabad. The continued missile attacks, which Pakistan officially opposes, suggests Washington considers the tactic too valuable to give up.
Though Pakistan objects to the covert, CIA-run missile program, it is believed to have aided it at times. The U.S. rarely acknowledges the program.
The two missiles hit a house Friday in Sheen Warsak village in the South Waziristan tribal area, according to two Pakistani intelligence officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to reporters.
The identities of the dead were not immediately clear. Although U.S. officials insist the vast majority of victims in the strikes are militants, Pakistanis and some human rights activists have said civilians are often caught up in the attacks.Now to mount the soapbox.
The italics in the above quote are mine, because, to be blunt, that is pretty messed up. 'Please trust our secretive, CIA-run missile program to discern the good foreign people from the bad ones when it launches unilateral missile strikes. Oh, and if we happen to kill a few innocent folks along the way, don't worry, most of the dead people were militants.' Whatever gets the winds to blow at Aulis...
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Terrorism, it seems to me, is bad because it punishes innocent people for not agreeing with the beliefs of the terrorist. These innocent people encompass those killed or wounded in an attack, as well as the populace whose psyche bears a residual imprint from the action. I am certainly not saying that U.S. drone attacks are equivalent to the actions of a suicide bomber in a marketplace, but 'mistakes' (pardon the meiosis) like this just might have similar psychological effects on nations that already distrust us enough.
It upsets me to see things like al-Megrahi getting a hero's welcome in Tripoli, and I don't consider myself a citizen of the Great Satan. I understand that there are dangerous, bad people in the world who wouldn't hesitate to kill complete strangers. I get it. I just wish my country would exercise more tact and precision--and a lot more respect for life--in its efforts to stop them. There are enough dead innocent people already.
Dismount soapbox.
A good point - your reference to the winds at Aulis nicely illustrates how warmongers talk themselves into sacrificing innocent life in pursuit of their lordly aims - something the tragedians often expressed brilliantly and starkly.
ReplyDeleteA dead child is a dead child, whatever the noble aims or ideology of the bomber that blew them to bits. *gets off own soapbox*