The drone debate

A new study carried out by experts at Stanford and New York University has bucked the conventional wisdom in the US about drone attacks as surgical and precise, claiming that they very rarely kill militant leaders and mostly just end up terrorising the civilian population. The study is a much-needed corrective to the drone debate in the US, which has operated on the assumption that very few civilians are killed in such attacks. That does not mean, however, that this report is without flaws. The study was commissioned and funded by the anti-drone campaigners at Reprieve and thus, it is not surprising that its findings matched those of its patrons. There is also the possibility that the people who were interviewed for the study were perhaps, pre-screened by the security agencies and spoke to the researchers in Islamabad, not the tribal areas, and this would make it difficult to verify their testimony.

The belief that drone attacks are carried out by a foreign country in violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty ignores the now-undisputed fact, as proved by WikiLeaks, that we have given the US tacit approval to use drones. Additionally, the US has needed to rely on drones because we have abdicated our responsibility to clear the tribal areas of militants. We have not done much to control the Haqqani network, which has meant that the US has had to rely on drones to achieve its ends.

Even if its findings are taken as gospel truth, this study does not end the argument over drone attacks. In fact, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal of September 26, the CIA informs Pakistani security agencies about the broad areas where the US intends to conduct drone strikes. There is no response to this communication by our side, but the airspace surrounding the areas outlined is cleared by Pakistan. This clearly amounts to tacit approval of the drone programme. Ultimately, the fact remains that drones would not be needed if Pakistan did its job and cleared the tribal belt of militants, something which should have been done a long time ago.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 27^th, 2012.