- 10 Jun 2012
Why drones won’t work
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Drone attacks — the other side of the story
We must realise that drones are effective in hunting down the sanctuaries of these militant groups.
ISLAMABAD: This is with reference to Maria Waqar’s article “Why drones won’t work” (June 11). Drone attacks have stoked hatred against the US in Pakistan. After every drone attack, a series of condemnations from politicians follows but no one ventures out of the traditional rhetoric and dares to understand the other side of the story.
American forces are launching these strikes in a bid to wipe out local and al Qaeda militants, which are lending support to the Afghan Taliban. These local Taliban, in partnership with al Qaeda, not only orchestrate bombings in our cities, but also supply military hardware and human resource to the Afghan Taliban. Why else will the US stage drone attacks in Pakistan, which are not only tarnishing its image in the country, but are also adding to its already surging military expenses?
On the other hand, the Pakistan Army has not acted against the Haqqani network, which is the driving force behind the Afghan Taliban. All these factors have contributed to the mistrust that the US has developed towards Pakistan. Therefore, the US is forced into increasing the number of drone attacks in the country. We must realise that drones are effective in hunting down the sanctuaries of these militant groups. However, what the US needs to do is to make these strikes more accurate and precise in order to scale down the deaths of innocents who are killed in the process.
Rehan Khan
Published in The Express Tribune, June 16th, 2012.
Reader Comments (5)
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Rehan if that drone fly over you house and your family is scared to death then think about it. According to USA own Law makers and media its illegal to use Drones. 1000′s of innocent people already die with these drones. When a missile is fired they do not see if the person is terrorist or innocent it just kills them. After losing of 40,000 people and 6 thousand of Paksitani arm forces in American so called war on terror if still American are not ahppy then they will never be happy even at this moment Pakistan have American puppet govt.
Today I read in paper that america is worried now that other countries like Venezvila and Iran are also making drones. America always start illegal weapons then when other countries start making them then they start thinking it is wrong. Why?
One day nearly more or less every country will have drones.
As for as Muslims countries are concerned US will always mistrust them. 30 years ago they were helping Iraq to attack on Iran then 10 year ago they attacked same country who they were helping and providing weapons against Iran.
Now turn by turn they will try with every single Islamic country with some excuse.
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@Freeman:
Drones strikes target individuals and locations/compounds that are identified by human elements (read ISI AGENTS) in the target area! If you think that the optics on a drone can differentiate between a militant and non-militant on the ground then you have seen way too many sci-fi movies! Also, please give us a credible reference to read about “1000′s of innocent people already die with these drones”!
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Dear Obama,
When an American drone’s hellfire missile kills a child in Pakistan, his father will go to war with you. Guaranteed. Nothing to do with al-qaeda…
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This is not the other side of the story, this is a justification given for genocide. Hitler saw fit to persecute Jews, did that make him right?
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This is not the other side of the story. Instead its official version of US government. Drones are illegal and killing civilians as well as suspected militants. According to Conflict Monitoring Center’s stats more than 2600 people have been killed by drones since 2004 but only about 100 are known militants. Rests of them are suspected militants often proven as innocent civilians.
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