US Done Strikes in Pakistan of Limited Value

[tekisui]

Source: DAWN

WASHINGTON: The US drone program in Pakistan has probably reached the “outer limits of its utility” and robs intelligence forces of valuable information while angering Pakistanis, a new report said Thursday.

The United States has ramped up its use of the unmanned weapons, with President Barack Obama ordering more strikes in 2009 than were authorised in the eight years prior.

But the report by Peter Bergen and Katherine Tiedemann at the New America Foundation, a Washington think-tank, argues that the tactic is counterproductive.

“The drone program has probably reached the outer limit of its utility,” Bergen said in presenting the study.

The weapons have reportedly killed some high-level militants in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Area (Fata), including Baitullah Mehsud — the most wanted militant in Pakistan and one-time leader of the Pakistani Taliban.

But the report calculates that civilians account for 32 per cent of the people killed in drone strikes from 2004 to today.

The strikes also do not appear to have interrupted training programs in the tribal areas, where fighters are prepared for combat in Afghanistan or to launch attacks in the West.

more: http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/world/04-drone-strikes-limited-value-report-qs-02

[rug]

1. Somewhere in the Pentagon, someone has calculated that one civilian is worth two terrorists.

No rebate for children.

[Toots]

2. Weren't Republicans saying this just a couple of weeks ago.

I think this "Think Tank" is just another Republican Con factory. They say we should have troops in there capturing people and water-boarding them into confessions instead of just killing them by remote control.. Just another way of criticizing how Obama is doing foreign policy.

[tekisui]

3. I would argue that neither troops, waterboarding or drones

are needed. But, Obama has greatly expanded the war in Pakistan and Afghanistan and deserves criticism for this.