Tag Archive

Aerial Death for you Evil Doers!

It is really crappy when the people you are killing decide to return the favour, Hillary Clinton is outraged at the audacity of people who are being bombed a couple of times a week that they might want to strike back, how dare they:

“We’ve made it very clear that, if, heaven forbid, an attack like this, if we can trace back to Pakistan, were to have been successful, there would be very serious consequences,” Clinton said on CBS News’ 60 Minutes programme last week.

Yeppers, watch out.  It is the US who wields the stick, at all times.  Or the US Proxy forces that must be eager to toss their people into the gapping bloody maw of the neo-imperialist war machine.  Observe the pressure placed on Pakistan to get their people out there to die for US policy.

“And behind the scenes, the US is also reportedly pressuring Pakistan to launch a fresh military offensive in North Waziristan.”

Evil Doers are out there, and you need to go git’em!

“Many analysts say that recent history is not encouraging: Drone strikes and several major Pakistani army offensives have succeeded in inflaming public opinion, but they have failed to dislodge the Taliban or al-Qaeda.

Huh, accidentally killing innocent people inflames public opinion?  Who would have guessed? Of course it just the opinion of the people who are being bombed, if they have not read the US Foreign Policy handout telling them that this murderous war is officially a “good thing” then they simply need to get with the pogrom program.   Thankfully, the casualties are all foreigners, otherwise we would have a real problem stateside.

It is okay though, the US is consolidating the military gains made in Afghanistan securing large portions of the country as safe from harm.  Or not.

“The Swat Valley offensive last year displaced more than two million people from their homes. Most have returned, according to the Pakistani government – but many of the returnees say the government is not providing basic services, notably security and housing.

“Widespread insecurity has also allowed the Taliban to return to previously-cleared areas in the Swat Valley.

Even if Pakistan launches an offensive there is no guarantee it will be able to hold and consolidate its gains – particularly if eastern Afghanistan, just across the border from North Waziristan, remains insecure.

“The Pakistanis acknowledge that they haven’t been able to do [counterinsurgency]. But the Nato failure on the other side of the border is just as obvious,” said Hassan Abbas, a professor at Columbia University and a former Pakistani government official.”

Whoops!  Perhaps the US should begin establishing strategic hamlets so we can sort out who is good and who is evil.  It has worked effectively in the past, so why not now?

Of course, intensifiying the conflict will only make things better:

“The US, meanwhile, has already accelerated its aerial bombing campaign in the tribal regions: Suspected drone strikes have already occurred 35 times this year, compared with 53 attacks in all of 2009, according to the Washington-based New America Foundation, which maintains a comprehensive database of the strikes.

“That seems to be the alternative plan: In case the Pakistani army refuses to go into North Waziristan, the US will intensify its drone strikes,” said Abdul Basit, a researcher at the Pakistan Institute of Peace Studies in Islamabad.

But the drone strikes have not decapitated the TTP; the group continues to terrorise Pakistan, and some US officials

Your home and relatives destroyed, love the War on Terror

acknowledge that the drone strikes have made the Taliban more determined to strike targets in the US.”

The blowback is festering and growing in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

“It is too early to tell what caused his radicalisation, but there are reports that he was motivated – at least in part – by anger over US drone strikes.

A larger US military presence in Pakistan could have a similarly negative effect on public opinion.

“I don’t see what more boots on the ground will do … in terms of bolstering the military’s capacity to fight the TTP,” said Sameer Lalwani, a research fellow at the New America Foundation.”

Afghanistan will be yet another untimely end to an imperialist power.  The rails are greased and the US is already on the downward trajectory.