Air Chief Marshall Rao Suleiman, the head of Pakistan’s Air Force, today discussed the “lessons” of the past three and a half years of bombing the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).
According to Suleiman, the Air Force flew 5,500 sorties against the FATA since May 2008, and has learned the lesson that knowing what you’re bombing is really important. He even conceded that early on, the Air Force was relying entirely on Google Earth to select targets.
It was only during the summer of 2009, when Pakistan invaded the Swat Valley, that the military actually starting doing its own reconnaissance for identifying camps to potentially bomb.
Unspoken in Suleiman’s comments are that the 5,500 sorties have done essentially nothing, and the FATA are no more under control of the military and the Zardari government now than they were when this round of bombing campaigns, mostly done at the behest of the United States, began.
It would've been more meaningful if they'd bombed nearby US bases 5,500 times..
Close to 80% of Pakistan suffers poverty, which means that the rich ruling class and all their military are a small 10% of society. Surely this is insanity, for what kind of game plan is it that enables our drones to terrorize 90% of Pakistan into fearful submission?