By Yasmeen Ali
America's drone war in Pakistan is killing mostly civilians
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That statement by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has become a laugh line in Pakistani drawing rooms.
The 9/11 attacks resulted in 2,996 deaths -- 246 on the planes,2606 in towers and on ground, 126 at the Pentagon. The attacks justified an invasion of Afghanistan, the Iraq War and also attacks on the America's "ally in war on terror," Pakistan.
The US has come a long way since. The policy of extrajudicial killings survived the Bush/Cheney era and has intensified from an estimated 45 attacks under Bush to 200 under Obama.
Few of those killed in these attacks have been militants. Most have been civilians. Indeed, according to the New American Foundation, only 2% of deaths have been of militants. But hey, that's ok. That's why the term "collateral damage" was coined, right?
The Pakistan Army has been engaged in a non-conventional war since 2001, resulting in millions being displaced and in civil amenities being destroyed. Yet there is now increasing pressure from the US on Pakistan to have out army target the region of our own country called North Waziristan.
Pakistan, the US says, needs to "do more."
Or else!
In an article carried by the Pakhtoonistan Gazette on 10 th April 2011, Muhammad Tahir comments on a White House report claiming that Pakistan has no "clear path" to defeat militants on its soil.
My humble submission, dear readers, is: Neither does the USA.
However, Pakistan needs to "do more."
Or else!...
For the rest of this article by Yasmeen Ali, exclusively in ThisCantBeHappening!, the new independent online alternative newspaper just beginning it's second year of daily publication, please go to: www.thiscantbehappening.net/node/657
