Droning about Pakistan

Sometimes I wish I were not a news junkie and, more than that, I wish that I had no interest at all in whatever was happening anywhere on the planet.  For one, despite my best attempts to stay focused on my own work and life, I end up blogging like this!  For another, it is damn depressing.

I check BBC for a news update after my coffee, breakfast and shower, and I read this report on Hillary Clinton's Pakistan trip:

it would be hard to imagine a more hostile and sceptical audience for a US secretary of state.

Mrs Clinton acknowledged there was what she called a trust deficit towards the United States in Pakistan because of past policies.

But she said she was working to change that by reaching out to ordinary Pakistanis.

And she flatly refused to discuss one of the major issues that the "ordinary Pakistanis" have with the US: the use of Predator drones.  Now, I could have just stopped with this; no, I had to read more stuff and get depressed and pissed off.  Over at Foreign Policy's AfPak channel, Peter Bergen and Katherine Tiedermann provide this chart and write:

The number of civilian deaths caused by the drones is an important issue, because in the charged political atmosphere of today's Pakistan, where anti-Americanism is rampant, the drone program is a particular cause of anger among those who see it as an infringement on Pakistan's sovereignty. A Gallup poll in August found that only 9 percent of Pakistanis favored the strikes, and two-thirds opposed them.
And, according to Philip Alston, a U.N. human rights investigator, the use of drones to carry out targeted assassinations that end up killing civilians may well violate international law.
On Tuesday at a news conference in New York, Alston publicly warned that unless the Obama administration explains what the legal basis is for selecting the individuals targeted by drone attacks, "it will increasingly be perceived as carrying out indiscriminate killings in violation of international law."

Meanwhile, we are just about a week away from the second round of elections in Afghanistan.  Today is Friday--I am willing to bet that the militants are spending the weekend plotting their next violent attacks.  Crap, I should have just slept through today!!!

The New Yorker Magazine's Oct 26th issue

I might have gotten the full value of the subscription (a gift from my daughter) from this issue alone.  Jane Mayer's detailed notes on the various aspects of using the Predator drones in Pakistan is a must read for every single citizen.  Everything Mayer has to say is important.  One of the questions that she raises that continues to bug me is this: it is one thing to use those drones in Afghanistan, where we are waging a war.  But, when we use it, particularly via the CIA, in Pakistan, isn't that extra-judicial killing by the state, which is something that the US has explicitly forbidden?  A very informative but troubling essay.

The essay on the nasty fires in Melbourne earlier this year is a gripping story.  Had me sit up in my bed as I started reading it.  I recall following it, particularly because my brother and his family live in that city--though they were too much within the city to be affected by the fires. 

And, oh yeah, there is also a piece on James "I'm the king of the world" Cameron and his soon to be released "Avatar." 

I prefer to be "base"less in Pakistan.

Fridays are when imams all across the tension-filled Islamic countries use the prayer services to engage their people on political issues too.  The congregation of people at such religious places are, sadly, opportunities for suicide bombers also.

I am sure that it did not help then for the following news item to get across just in time for the Friday gathering:

At a hearing, Feinstein expressed surprise over Pakistani opposition to the campaign of Predator-launched CIA missile strikes against Islamic extremist targets along Pakistan's northwestern border. 

"As I understand it, these are flown out of a Pakistani base," she said.

The basing of the pilotless aircraft in Pakistan suggests a much deeper relationship with the United States on counter-terrorism matters than has been publicly acknowledged. Such an arrangement would be at odds with protests lodged by officials in Islamabad, the capital, and could inflame anti-American sentiment in the country.

Hmmm ... let us recap.  The US has routinely flown pilotless drones in order to go after militants in Pakistan.  Every time such an incident happens, the people in Pakistan get upset--at the US, and at their government for letting this happen. Typically then the Pakistani government would file an official protest with the US, and .... 

Now the story takes on a different dimension altogether: a senator, who serves on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, publicly states that these are flown out of a Pakistani base!  Let us see how the shaky Pakistani government can explain this to its people, and how much the people will then tolerate their government.  Of course, this will only add to the anti-American feeling in Pakistan.

This is yet another instance where it is clear that we simply do not have a game plan when it comes to Pakistan.  We have no idea how much we are fooling around with a country that has nukes, an extremely unstable government, groups of people who want nothing but chaos for various reasons .....

I have more reasons to worry about Pakistan now .... awful.