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Friday, November 21, 2008
For the first time, US drones have moved beyond the tribal areas that border Afghanistan and struck inside the Bannu district. Four persons are reported to have been killed as two missiles rained down on a residential compound. Accounts vary as to the identity of the dead. Some reports suggest three foreign nationals, including an Al Qaeda commander, were among the victims. The local MPA has angrily denied this and stated all those who died were innocent local people. Once more, there is rage and anger over the drone strike.
As always, the truth is impossible to uncover. But for Pakistan's government, the indication that the US may be ready to expand its range of operations is ominous. The prime minister and the president have tried repeatedly to parry angry attacks made on them by the opposition for failing to prevent the drone attacks by launching fierce condemnations of the action. These words cannot change the fact that there have been at least 16 drone raids since August this year – far more than the number that took place during seven previous months of the year. The missile attack in a settled area will bring still more pressure on Islamabad to act in defence of its sovereignty.
So far, President Zardari seems to have pinned his hopes on a change in US strategy by the incoming Obama administration. He and other members of the government have stated on several occasions that they are optimistic policy will be reviewed and altered. The question is what, if anything, Pakistan is doing to make this more likely and to bring about a change in the views of president-elect Barack Obama regarding tactics in Pakistan, given that consistently through his electoral campaign he had adopted a hard-line stance. Somehow, Islamabad needs to find a way to persuade Washington that it would more effectively be able to fight terrorism if it was allowed to do so on its own and that such a war would win greater support from people. This would give the effort against terrorism far greater strength. But in order to convince Washington, Islamabad needs to be certain of its own full commitment and conviction. It must explain why the militants that the US has apparently been able to eliminate during some of its strikes had not been pin-pointed and dealt with by Pakistan. If this is due to intelligence failure then loopholes in the system urgently need to be plugged. Only if we can demonstrate a readiness and ability to deal with terrorists on our own, will the US be willing to hear what our leaders have to say. This calls for the drawing up of detailed blueprints and plans. So far, it is quite obvious that even though the stepped-up operation against militants has been appreciated, Washington is not confident that terrorists can be dealt with by Pakistan on its own. It has also failed to see that the controversial drone attacks are adding to the complications involved in dealing with terrorism and thus, in reality, playing into the hands of the dangerous band of militants who seem to have set up base across our northern areas.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
