I caught a story on dateline the other night titled the Battle for Pakistan which covered the government's efforts to dismantle the Taliban and "Al-Qaeda" in the regions that border Pakistan and Afghanistan. The story mentioned the US's use of unmanned predator drones for strikes against targets within sovereign Pakistani territory. Disappointingly the use of predator drones has continued under the authorisation of President Obama and cause devastating collateral damage often killing innocent civilians.
Since last August, the US military has stepped up the use of unmanned drones to fire missiles at 'high-value' targets inside Pakistan. The nation is outraged at America's violation of their sovereignty and at the rising civilian death toll.
PAKISTANI MEDIA: 15 people were killed, the second incident claiming the lives of children as well. What's going on?
President Zardari has repeatedly asked Washington to stop the attacks, but even under the new Obama Administration, the raids have continued.
REPORTER: How does the government feel that the Americans are just ignoring their requests?
FARATULLAH BARBAR: That is true that the Americans have not listened to this. They still continue the drone attacks. Only two days ago, there was a very big drone attack in which a number of people were killed. This is really unfortunate.
Really unfortunate that the Pakistani government is complicit by allowing the US to launch the attacks from Shamsi Airbase inside Pakistan. Faratullah either failed to mention, or is unaware, that the Pakistani Government is allowing the United States to launch raids from their own soil against their own people. According to globalsecurity.org the airbase has been used by the US military since October 2001 and has only recently become public knowledge when the London Times published Google Earth images of what appear to be three unmanned US drones on Shamsi Airbase during 2006.
Since last August, the US military has stepped up the use of unmanned drones to fire missiles at 'high-value' targets inside Pakistan. The nation is outraged at America's violation of their sovereignty and at the rising civilian death toll.
PAKISTANI MEDIA: 15 people were killed, the second incident claiming the lives of children as well. What's going on?
President Zardari has repeatedly asked Washington to stop the attacks, but even under the new Obama Administration, the raids have continued.
REPORTER: How does the government feel that the Americans are just ignoring their requests?
FARATULLAH BARBAR: That is true that the Americans have not listened to this. They still continue the drone attacks. Only two days ago, there was a very big drone attack in which a number of people were killed. This is really unfortunate.
Really unfortunate that the Pakistani government is complicit by allowing the US to launch the attacks from Shamsi Airbase inside Pakistan. Faratullah either failed to mention, or is unaware, that the Pakistani Government is allowing the United States to launch raids from their own soil against their own people. According to globalsecurity.org the airbase has been used by the US military since October 2001 and has only recently become public knowledge when the London Times published Google Earth images of what appear to be three unmanned US drones on Shamsi Airbase during 2006.
I find it disturbing that the Pakistani Government would allow and assist these attacks, then pretend to protest of "violated sovereignty" in order to keep the population's support. They're taking their people for fools which only further galvanises internal support for the Taliban. Think about it: If your hometown was bombed and your government assisted the aggressor who would you turn to? Your government? Or the Anti-US Taliban? It's a no brainer.
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