U.S. to intensify drone strikes in Pakistan

[RazPaK]

After reading your first para, i had no courage left to go forward, as its useless to argue with people who get their info from wikipedias or stuff like that by sitting somewhere abroad.

After 2007, when drone strikes increased, Pakistan saw the bloodiest & most brutal time period in this whole War of Terror. Major blasts happened in 2007 and going forward, huge ones. The city i live in, it saw for whole 11 days non stop suicide bombings, not a single day would pass when we would not hear a bomb blast, and 4 of them happened within 1Km of where i live, even my 2 month old daughter got injured in one of the blasts. Since the say Army moved against the US funded/supported TTP, things started to come to normal, it wasn't due to US drone strikes, rather it was due to the Pak Army operations that we are now at a relative peace, but since in recent days 2 drones have happened, very soon it will be avenged by the TTP through some suicide blasts.

Sorry, could not reply to your rest of the post as did not read after your ignorant filled first para, which is not what the reality is.

US drone strikes have brought more death and destruction for Pakistanis, the calm we see is thanks to the hundreds of soldiers we lost against US funded/supported TTP and controlling the movement of US contractors.

It's a waste of time. I believe this guy just makes things up as he goes along. I've had prior experience with him.

 

[TaimiKhan]

ISAF forces are drawing down after 2014 and will have only a limited role going forward. That is why it is important for Pakistan to be at the table, such as the upcoming meeting in Chicago, to ensure it can work with the Afghan forces directly to ensure on-going co-operation


I can agree with that.

I fail to see why they are drawing down when they have not fulfilled their main objective in Afghanistan. rather majority of the objectives are left empty. Taliban still control vast areas in Afghanistan, areas which are hundreds of miles way from pak-afghan border and with Taliban infrastructure intact.

US can send 450k troops in Iraq, but hardly 100-150K in Afghanistan, that's injustice, even though the 9/11 attacks happened from Afghanistan and not Iraq, Iraq had nothing to do with WOT but it still got the majority of the funding, forces and attention. While Afghanistan which was liable for the 2k+ US deaths in New York just got a fraction of the attention. Strange.

 

[MilSpec]

After reading your first para, i had no courage left to go forward, as its useless to argue with people who get their info from wikipedias or stuff like that by sitting somewhere abroad.

After 2007, when drone strikes increased, Pakistan saw the bloodiest & most brutal time period in this whole War of Terror. Major blasts happened in 2007 and going forward, huge ones. The city i live in, it saw for whole 11 days non stop suicide bombings, not a single day would pass when we would not hear a bomb blast, and 4 of them happened within 1Km of where i live, even my 2 month old daughter got injured in one of the blasts. Since the say Army moved against the US funded/supported TTP, things started to come to normal, it wasn't due to US drone strikes, rather it was due to the Pak Army operations that we are now at a relative peace, but since in recent days 2 drones have happened, very soon it will be avenged by the TTP through some suicide blasts.

Sorry, could not reply to your rest of the post as did not read after your ignorant filled first para, which is not what the reality is.

US drone strikes have brought more death and destruction for Pakistanis, the calm we see is thanks to the hundreds of soldiers we lost against US funded/supported TTP and controlling the movement of US contractors.

What happens in Pakistan is internal matter of Pakistan, US should not get involved in hot pursuit, As your said, it endangers Pakistani civilains via both drones and reprisal attacks. This matter should be left in the hands of Pakistani law enforcement agencies

 

[TaimiKhan]

It's a waste of time. I believe this guy just makes things up as he goes along. I've had prior experience with him.

Same with me, but i do hope one day these Americans can open their eyes to reality and see from other peoples perspective.

But i think i may be wasting my time.

 

[Jackdaws]

I want to know - have these drone attacks actually helped the War of Terror or not? If only innocent civilians are being killed, then something is seriously amiss with the Pakistani machinery for letting it happen; even if it is just a non-official nod to the Americans.

 

[RazPaK]

Same with me, but i do hope one day these Americans can open their eyes to reality and see from other peoples perspective.

But i think i may be wasting my time.

Well Taimi, you are one of the people that are living through this wretched time, while people like me are sitting in the comfort of the West.

I value your input on the ground realities more than anything else.

 

[TaimiKhan]

What happens in Pakistan is internal matter of Pakistan, US should not get involved in hot pursuit, As your said, it endangers Pakistani civilains via both drones and reprisal attacks. This matter should be left in the hands of Pakistani law enforcement agencies

Not only that, US should play a major role by bringing in more troops and use them in controlling the areas in Afghanistan and destroy the Taliban infrastructure and re-occupy the more then 70% afghanistan in taliban's hand.

 

[Jackdaws]

I fail to see why they are drawing down when they have not fulfilled their main objective in Afghanistan. rather majority of the objectives are left empty. Taliban still control vast areas in Afghanistan, areas which are hundreds of miles way from pak-afghan border and with Taliban infrastructure intact.

US can send 450k troops in Iraq, but hardly 100-150K in Afghanistan, that's injustice, even though the 9/11 attacks happened from Afghanistan and not Iraq, Iraq had nothing to do with WOT but it still got the majority of the funding, forces and attention. While Afghanistan which was liable for the 2k+ US deaths in New York just got a fraction of the attention. Strange.

And to boot - the Americans helped the Iraqis declare war on Iran. Iraq has nothing to with Al Qaeda - nothing at all. The ruling Ba'ath party was not even remotely religious.

 

[VCheng]

I fail to see why they are drawing down when they have not fulfilled their main objective in Afghanistan. rather majority of the objectives are left empty. Taliban still control vast areas in Afghanistan, areas which are hundreds of miles way from pak-afghan border and with Taliban infrastructure intact.

US can send 450k troops in Iraq, but hardly 100-150K in Afghanistan, that's injustice, even though the 9/11 attacks happened from Afghanistan and not Iraq, Iraq had nothing to do with WOT but it still got the majority of the funding, forces and attention. While Afghanistan which was liable for the 2k+ US deaths in New York just got a fraction of the attention. Strange.

The goals were to eliminate the Al-Qaeda leadership and to render the area unusable as a launching pad for future attacks on USA. As long as Taleban do not allow a resurgence, their control poses no issues from the US point of view.

Iraq and Iran are different issues altogether that do not directly concern Pakistan, so I will leave them aside for now, in this thread.

 

[TaimiKhan]

I want to know - have these drone attacks actually helped the War of Terror or not? If only innocent civilians are being killed, then something is seriously amiss with the Pakistani machinery for letting it happen; even if it is just a non-official nod to the Americans.

Yeah, it has helped the Americans only, by keeping US safe, but it has let to the deaths of thousands of Pakistanis and has fueled the insurgency on both sides of the border.

 

[Abu Zolfiqar]

Jack - it's no coincidence that both Afghanistan and Iraq just happen to 'envelope' Iran

 

[Mercenary]

I want to know - have these drone attacks actually helped the War of Terror or not? If only innocent civilians are being killed, then something is seriously amiss with the Pakistani machinery for letting it happen; even if it is just a non-official nod to the Americans.

Drone strikes have been very effective.

Why would America waste 70,000 dollar missiles to kill innocents which only generate more anti-Americanism in Pakistan.

Nationalistic Pakistanis will never admit the drone strikes are successful. Even if a drone strike kills 99 terrorists and 1 innocent civilian, these guys will be all over the 1 innocent person killed. There is no technology on the planet which can have a 100% success rate of avoiding innocents.

Its sad its happening, but in order to make Pakistan safe, this action has to be taken.

 

[Edevelop]

I want to know - have these drone attacks actually helped the War of Terror or not? If only innocent civilians are being killed, then something is seriously amiss with the Pakistani machinery for letting it happen; even if it is just a non-official nod to the Americans.

The fact is, if U.S is only engaging Air war in Pakistan, then it cannot possibly help the war on terror. An Army is always needed in any country to provide intelligence and to observe areas of check post. There are no U.S ground forces inside Pakistan and so they cannot possibly be accurate about the terror engagements....
I see this Drone war as a video game to kill innocent civilians for the wrong reasons to justify war against Pakistan....

 

[Jackdaws]

Drone strikes have been very effective.

Why would America waste 70,000 dollar missiles to kill innocents which only generate more anti-Americanism in Pakistan.

Nationalistic Pakistanis will never admit the drone strikes are successful. Even if a drone strike kills 99 terrorists and 1 innocent civilian, these guys will be all over the 1 innocent person killed. There is no technology on the planet which can have a 100% success rate of avoiding innocents.

Its sad its happening, but in order to make Pakistan safe, this action has to be taken.

Ok, I should have phrased it better. As a percentage, one drone strike kills how many terrorist and how many civilians?

Jack - it's no coincidence that both Afghanistan and Iraq just happen to 'envelope' Iran

In my view, it has nothing to do with Iran then - it is just that Dubya wanted to finish Saddam as daddy could not do so. Of course, I bet he thought Iran was next.

 

[Abu Zolfiqar]

I want to know - have these drone attacks actually helped the War of Terror or not? If only innocent civilians are being killed, then something is seriously amiss with the Pakistani machinery for letting it happen; even if it is just a non-official nod to the Americans.

the reality is that yes - militants have been taken out....the operational capacity and rank of those whacked is debatable however

furthermore, I wouldnt attribute the substantial decline in terrorist attacks in Pakistan to the clandestine drone program...it has more so to do with the fact that COIN ops have seen much success. The people in the insurgency-hit areas are by and large - with the Pakistani state - and to have the tribes on your side is extremely important

NATOs mission to ''win hearts and minds'' has obviously gone astray, considering the change in tides we've witnessed from 2003/04 compared with 2011/12. The mission to hand over security responsibility to Afghan ''national'' army is largely a futile one and the Americans are quietly (and now publicly) admitting this stark reality

it's really Pakistan that has (and will continue to) pay the price for NATOs decade-long misguided misadventure in Afghanistan....but the issue of neglect and carelessness stems back much longer than that - majority of you guys were probably not even born yet.