KARACHI: Barack Obama has been re-elected as president of the United States for four more years. He told his supporters after winning the election that the “best was yet to come”. However, I am more concerned with how his election will affect Pakistan, in particular the issue of drone strikes.
In the debates preceding the election, neither President Obama nor his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, talked much about the human casualties involved in drone strikes. What is equally worrying is the hypocrisy in America’s reaction towards drone casualties and towards incidents like the shooting attack on Malala Yousufzai. The latter are condemned in the strongest words possible, and rightly so, but on the issue of civilian casualties by US drone strikes, there is a deafening silence. Also, there is little or no realisation that drone strikes are increasing the already rampant anti-American sentiment in Pakistan to even greater heights.
And in this, the reaction of ordinary Pakistanis is only to be expected. Each time a child dies in a drone strike, the father feels angry and pained and wishes death to the United States. This has nothing to do with the Taliban, al Qaeda or any other terrorist organisation but rather the anger and frustration of an ordinary Pakistani. So for Pakistanis, the US election will not change much in that drone strikes will continue.
President Obama and the American people have to understand the importance of Pakistan and the sacrifices rendered by its civilians and armed forces in making the world and the US, in particular, a safe and more secure place to live in. Pakistan does not deserve the hostile, barbaric and inhuman treatment that is meted out to its citizens through drone strikes.
Bismah Mirza
Published in The Express Tribune, November 10th, 2012.
