A pair of US drone strikes, using multiple drones and nearly a dozen missiles, attacked Pakistan’s North Waziristan Agency today, killing at least 17 people and wounding an unknown number of others.
The first attack destroyed a car in Dosali village, killing two people who Pakistani officials later described as “suspects.” In the second attack several drones rained 10 missiles on a pair of housing compounds in Ambarshaga, leveling the buildings.
Officials say at least 15 people were killed in the compounds attack, and probably several more remain buried under the rubble. It is therefore expected that the death toll will rise throughout the day. One official termed all the dead “militants,” though their identities could not be ascertained.
The attack is the latest in a growing number of attacks on North Waziristan, one of the regions the Obama Administration is cajoling the Pakistani military into invading. It is also one of the deadliest attacks in weeks.
I'd sure like to know the ages & gender of the "militants" killed in this latest drone strike. We certainly are a brave bunch when no American lives are at stake, but blowback is hell & you can bet there will be some. So much the better for Brand Obama & the Munitions Makers; more justification to up the ante, keep the blood flowing, and generate diplomatic talking points that skirt the carnage we've created in so many suffering regions of the world. Pendulums swing, tides turn, cultures collapse…drones, despite what the Pentagon thinks, won't save us.
I so agree with you.
It is astounding that the current American Administration is treating the American People as a bunch of idiots. AND GETTING AWAY WITH IT.
After reading an AntiWar link regarding intercepting drone video transmissions using $ 26 software of the shelf , apperantly a recreational activity by various insurgents as back as Bosnia 1990s and including Iraqies and Taliban now , it does put things into perspective . More and more it appears that what happends in Afpak is a cleansing operation conducted by Pakistanies using USA cockines ( or other , more subtle reasons for not encrypting the drone feeds – maybe because the Congress law doesn't allow Xe/Blackwatter to have access to military encyption ) .
Yes , it's a Machiavelic world outhere , and no hope in site , no truthful leader on the horizon in USA .
Yet we have a model : RecipeForaNation.vox.com
I think it is worthy to consider that according to new releases hand-held IPods by Apple will be more extesively used by US ground troops to keep in touch with the drones . Hence it appears there is no fear of Electro Magnetic Pulses ( EMP ) caused by a nuke blown above ground … good thing , eh , if we take the bait – knowing the pain & $$ spent by military /R&D to protect from EMP ! Hence it is not a cookie for just anyone when the thing blows the ionosphere …
Note also the new 'multi-stream' video capabilities under testing now in Afpak , offering some 10 channells of video covering 3 square kilometers , good also for public survaillance back home in the USA ( once the dollar and wages are reset to 1930's levels and people take on arms remembering the French revolution ) .
As we approach the next ice age all this turmoil will become a trivial matter compared with the turmoil of different people meeting within a tight band around the Ecuator ( living on boats / bgarges ) . The only silver line of this 100,000 year ( please see RecipeForaNation.vox.com , thank you ) .
"Winning the hearts and minds of the Afghan people" – by bombing them and killing them, – it worked really well when that strategy was used in Vietnam – didn't it? As in Vietnam -every 'civilian' killed was the enemy – weren't they? Every person killed in Afghanistan is Taliban – right? Let's see -as per 'NOVA' on PBS TV earlier tonight – ALL of the 9/11 attackers trained in the United States; ALL were under suspicion and were being monitored by the 'NSA'; ALL were granted visas to enter the U.S.; NONE came from Iraq or Afghanistan. 'They' killed 3000 of us – we have the right to murder hundreds of thousands of them – don't we? There won't be any "blowback" now will there be? – 'they' do not have the right to do to us what we are doing to them – right? Mao said it best: "It is easy to defeat an arrogant enemy." NO country is more arrogant than America – perhaps Israel! As Thomas Jefferson said: "I tremble for my country because I know that God is just and His justice does not rest forever."
The accounts of who is killed is standard. Perhaps it is just written by a computer program. The first accounts are always that everyone was a militant. Accounts that suggest otherwise will be Taliban propaganda. There is virtually no discussion in the press about the legality or even the morality of the use of drones. Imagine if these drones were used in the war on drugs in the US?
For some reason the people who support this policy are deaf to the chorus of voices expert and non-expert who point out that this provides great opportunities for recruiting by the Taliban. Obama's foregn policy is just as much an abomination as that of Bush.